I have to admit when I received a call back yesterday from Batesville marketing director Teresa Gyulafia, I was pretty surprised. After placing a call on Monday to confirm speculation that Batesville Casket Company purchased the burial vault portion of Goria Corporation, I was directed to a number of different voicemails, but no calls were returned on Monday or Tuesday.
Again I called on Tuesday were I was able to talk with a representative from the communication department who did confirm that Batesville purchased the ?Intellectual Property? regarding the burial vaults. All other questions were referred to marketing director Teresa Gyulafia. Wednesday morning I received a call back from Teresa. Here is what she had to say.
Conversation Dialogue:
CD.com ? What did Batesville purchase?
Batesville ? The ?Intellectual Property? for the burial vault portion of Goria Corporation. Intellectual property includes: Patents, Molds, and manufacturing materials for the Eonian and Endurance burial vaults.
CD.com ? What does Batesville Plan to do with the vaults?
Batesville ? We are currently doing product evaluation to see if this type of burial vault is something Batesville has interest in. We have been product testing the operational purpose of the burial vaults in Syracuse, NY, as well as testing the technology and manufacturing of the burial vaults.
CD.com ? How long will Batesville be doing product evaluation?
Batesville ? We expect to make a decision in 2010. No date has been set; it will depend on what is learned from the evaluation.
Teresa also explained that Batesville is not currently manufacturing the burial vaults, they purchased enough vaults from Goria to last through the product evaluation stage.
I really don?t think that this story has received enough face-time in the industry. Currently ConnectingDirectors.com is the only publication that has release informatioin regarding this topic.
Maybe the story interests me more because I am also in the burial vault business, but regardless, if Batesville decides to take on burial vaults they could make a big impact on the burial vault world. Just think of the ramifications, if Batesville switched all their customers over to using their burial vault?
What do you think the impact could be?
