Most mergers are driven by the notion, sometimes wildly mistaken, that the combination will bring both a competitive advantage. Some pairs of companies, however, seem so intuitively right for one another, no bottom-line considerations should be allowed to interfere with their matrimony. Like a BB gun and an empty bottle, these two were meant for one another.The funeral industry is one of the last bastions against the pervasive move down-market. Not even Ikea sells a casket. Yet.
There are two American companies, though, that if combined, could offer a new application for a product that people have trusted for decades -- I'm talking, of course, about a Tupperware Casket. I even have a slogan: Burp 'em and bury 'em.
One of Hillenbrand Industries, Inc. (NYSE: HB)'s best holdings is the Batesville Casket Company. While the funeral services portion of HB has enjoyed steady growth, it is now facing possible antitrust charges for allegedly conspiring with funeral home companies to prevent discounters and online retailers from marketing their wares. Pairing up with Tupperware (NYSE: TUP) on a line of budget burial goods might take the teeth out of that charge.
Almost every customer attending a Tupperware party is going to need a casket some day, imagine how many Tupperware afterlife collections a sales force of this size could move. And imagine how useful the container could be while marking time toward its ultimate use. Bathe the dog? Ice down beer? Cover the a/c unit for the winter? Upside down, it would make a striking coffee table.
Hillenbrand and Tupperware -- a match made in heaven (or slightly before).
Closing Bell: When We All Love the PIIGS (NBG, SQNM, PG, ERTS, KO)
Serious Money: Cheapest Stocks List Shrinks from 26 to 21
Chasing Value: Hasbro Earnings Makes My Point
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-26-2007 @ 7:13PM
Robert said...
Sounds good to me
10-26-2007 @ 9:04PM
John said...
Okay, you cannot say 'burp'em and bury'em" to the bereaved of the stiff.
10-29-2007 @ 10:15AM
infopump said...
There was a TV series "Eerie, Indiana" (1991), http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101088/plotsummary
"Elvis lives there, so do a pair of twins who stay young by sleeping in Tupperware, and many other strange things."
So, why stay fresh while sleeping forever?