The ratings on Houston-based Carriage Services Inc. reflect Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' expectation for low-single-digit revenue growth, considering the death care industry's slow growth and increasingly cost-conscious consumers. We expect same-store cemetery and funeral sales to be flat, because of ongoing trends in the mature death care industry. In our opinion, Carriage's acquisitive growth strategy likely is its sole source of future revenue growth. A revamped sales force should support preneed property sales; however we expect the weak economic environment could hinder Carriage. Preneed property sales have little affect on revenue in the current period, because a large portion of preneed property sales are deferred until services are rendered; however, preneed sales increase the backlog of future revenues. We
