The odds are that unless you happen to be intimately familiar with the funerary services industry that you have not hear about Batesville Casket Company. For those of you who are not familiar with the name the company describes itself  in the following terms “For more than 100 years, Batesville has been a leader in the funeral industry. Our revolutionary products and programs have been instrumental in helping customers enhance their relationships with the families they serve. Every day, our commitment to quality, innovation and craftsmanship pushes us to do our jobs even better.” Either way the odds are that you can figure out what they make.

The company, which is one of the largest in the southeast Indiana area, is getting ready to layoff about 100 workers from its casket production lines in the local area. The workers who were going to be affected by the layoffs were given their notice at the end of last week. The management of the company was quick to assure local residents that while these layoffs were needed in order for the company to stay competitive, it is by no means a first step towards shutdown.  Since the plant is a major employer in the area concerns of a shut down are a serious one for the local community. Many people are already predicting that the town closest to the plant will feel some serious economic impact over the current 100 layoffs.

A comment made by Kim Dennis, the company’s president, to a reporter for WLWT about the layoffs, “We see a continuing shift in consumer trends. We see a shift from metal caskets to wood caskets. We see a shift towards cremation. All of those things make us, as a company, need to respond to those changes.”

At the current moment no details are know about the details of the workers packages, but we already have some vague information. Some of the worker will be given a severance package to help ease their transitions. Other members, who have been with the facility longer, will be offered an early retirement package, instead of laying off the workers. At the very least this policy may help to keep as many workers as happy as possible when they are out of a job.

Currently the Batesville Casket Company is a subsidiary of Hillenbrand, Inc. For those of you who are not familiar with that name, the company is a holding company for several funerary services providers. The company describes itself as  “Headquartered in Batesville, Ind., Hillenbrand is a diversified industrial enterprise with multiple subsidiaries contained within two business platforms.

Batesville is a leader in the North American death care industry through the manufacture and sale of funeral services products, including burial caskets, cremation caskets, containers and urns, burial vaults, selection room display fixturing, and other personalization and memorialization products. “ The company is publically traded.

At the current moment the company has not announced any plans for more layoffs in the future. Though they have not been discounted.