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Products from the Peter Braun coffin factory in Cologne
Photo: Federico Gambarini / dpa
If you have to take care of the funeral of a relative, you could pay significantly more to the undertaker in the future than before.
Germany's coffin manufacturers want to raise their prices sharply.
As a survey by the Bundesverband Bestattungsbedarf showed, more than half of the manufacturers are planning price increases of 10 to 20 percent in the current year.
Some companies want to charge even more.
It's about the prices that the manufacturers charge the undertakers.
The undertakers will probably pass on the increase in whole or at least in part to their customers.
Association head Jürgen Stahl justified the price increases primarily with the consequences of the Ukraine war.
Energy and wood have become more expensive, and there are also bottlenecks in the supply of primary products.
Manufacturers also use goods from Ukraine, including metal clips and yarn for interior trim.
The upcoming round of prices is remarkable in that the domestic industry has already increased prices in the low double-digit percentage range in the past two years, according to the association - mainly because of higher wood prices.
Tough competition from Eastern Europe
In Germany, a coffin for cremation from local production costs 250 to 400 euros, according to the association.
For coffins that go underground, the price range is often 300 to 600 euros - although there are also significantly more expensive coffins that cost several thousand euros.
The coffin-making industry is small; the association has 19 member companies from this market segment.
These include, for example, Lignotec from Berlin and Andres & Massmann from Blankenrath in Rhineland-Palatinate.
Most companies have fewer than 20 employees.
Basically, the chairman of the association, who is also the head of Stahl Sargfertigung GmbH from Kleinheubach in Franconia, sees the prospects for the industry as positive: "Coffins are always needed, people always die."
However, the trend towards cremation has been causing problems for domestic manufacturers for a long time, as cheap imports from Eastern Europe are often used for this purpose.
10 to 15 years ago there were three times as many coffin manufacturers in Germany as there are now, says the head of the association, Stahl.
»The number of imports has increased significantly and the level of coffins has changed.« For example, many coffins used in Germany now come from Poland.
Of the approximately one million coffins that are used in Germany every year, an estimated 60 percent are from abroad, 40 percent are »Made in Germany«.
And what do the buyers, i.e. the undertakers, say about the price increases?
The head of the Cologne coffin factory Peter Braun, Erich Allescher, assumes that the trend towards relatively cost-saving cremation will increase.
beb/dpa