Caskets of Honor is taking on the big funeral industry and focusing on the customer with direct-to-consumer sales.

Bringing change to the $20 billion dollar funeral industry.

Caskets of Honor is bringing direct-to-consumer convenience, savings, and customer service to the often-emotional task of purchasing a casket. The company’s founders are a husband-and-wife team Todd Collard and Candi Mentink from Calvin, Oklahoma.

Caskets of Honor’s mission is to help turn a funeral into a life celebration. While making it easy to buy a custom casket online, through its own marketplace www.casketsofhonor.com. The goal is to save them money during a process in which grief usually trumps the notion of shopping around.

“Funeral Directors know that most people don’t shop,” Todd said. “You’re going to go to the same funeral home you’ve always gone to. It’s not right, it’s not wrong, it’s just what people do, and they buy their casket, and the prices can be exorbitant. The director knows he has you.” said Caskets of Honor co-founder Todd Collard.

Todd said a custom casket that Caskets of Honor charges $3,750 for can range in price from $5,900 to $15,000, if purchased through a funeral home. The funeral homes mark their caskets up 200 to 600 percent, depending on the casket and funeral home. Our direct to the consumer price of $3,750 for a fully customized luxurious casket is no more than what a funeral home charges for an average plain casket.

The reason behind unaffordable prices at funeral homes, according to Caskets of Honor, is because two large manufacturers control most of the casket market and they only sell to funeral homes, and funeral homes don’t have a lot of competition it’s designed that way. “It’s really up to the funeral home what they charge, they are a business for profit like any other.” Let’s be honest, if the largest fast food burger chain didn’t have any competition would they sell their burgers for a $1.00, probably not.” Todd said.

“In all fairness, most funeral homes are wonderful to work with,” Candi said. “There are some occasional bad apples, but we prefer to have good relationships with the funeral homes, and we work closely with them. We actually go above and beyond for them, even the bad apples. Because in the end it’s about the family not the funeral home.”

Todd has owned and operated a sign and wrap business since 1998. With a degree in graphic design and more than 30 years in the sign and wrap business. These custom caskets were an idea that Todd started thinking about over twenty years ago “How cool would it be to customize a casket” and give the families what they want. They both started seriously kicking ideas around in 2016 and decided to purchase their first casket. Todd and Candi slowly started marketing their caskets to funeral homes and attending the funeral industry trade shows in Oklahoma and Texas. They sold their first custom casket in 2017 and “We sold one, then two, then three and it just started to work, then we added custom interiors” The reviews they received from the funeral industry was unbelievable. Even the big casket manufactures gathered at their booth and complimented on them.

“The real magic was in combining all the technology of a wrap shop, graphic design, and the hidden seamstress capabilities of Candi together”. Forming a product that is second to none, and the customer service and operational intensity of Candi, well that’s just icing on the cake.” “It’s the core of the company.” Todd said.

But by being based in Oklahoma, legally they could only sell to funeral homes. They had no way of controlling the price that funeral homes charged the customer for their caskets, and they wanted everyone to be able to afford their casket and that meant keeping the price low. Long story short they needed to move Caskets of Honor to Texas so they could sell and ship their caskets to anyone in any state.

In November of 2021 they decided to sell direct to the consumer and started preparing for this.

“We think it’s time. The marketplace is there, and we have a vision of where this is going.”

Caskets of Honor stepped out from under the umbrella of Collard Designs and launched as a self-sustained Texas based online business in 2022, and the founders have not raised venture or any outside capital to date. Todd and Candi handle all of customer service and sales, which is facilitated in emails or phone calls with customers. Todd designs all the wraps for the caskets while his wife Candi designs and sews the interiors. They both serve as co-CEOs and run Caskets of Honor’s day-to-day operations.

Caskets of Honor caskets can be shipped to funeral homes in any state and customers are able to supply their own caskets because of a federal law called “the Funeral Rule,” enforced by the Federal Trade Commission. It states, in part: “The funeral provider cannot refuse to handle a casket or urn you bought online, at a local casket store, or somewhere else — or charge you a fee to do it. The funeral home cannot require you to be there when the casket or urn is delivered to them.”

“It’s been very rewarding building this and most of all helping families.” Candi said.