Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • July 9, 2018 • Hartford Business Journal 17 By Sean Teehan steehan@HartfordBusiness.com D eath has been a major part of Andrea Wasley's life for nearly a quarter-century. She started working at Bailey Funeral Home in Plainville in 1994, when she was a senior in high school, and remained there until 2016. Working as a funeral director is her calling, said Wasley, a lifelong Plainville resident. But the corporate management style at Bailey, which is owned by Houston-based Car- riage Services Inc., made her uneasy. Her opinions on how the community should be served conflicted with man- agements, she said. How did she respond? She left Bailey two years ago and recently opened her own funeral home. The 5,000-square- foot facility debuted in May, but the noteworthy part of the project was not just that she built the facility from the ground up — at a time when there are fewer funeral homes in the state than in years past — but where she located it. Its 81 Broad St. address in Plainville is directly across the street from her former employer. Her decision to open a funeral home so close to Bailey, which was previous- ly the only game in town, came not out of animosity, but rather practicality, she said. Broad Street is one of the few main streets in Plainville, and is home to Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church. Pressure from management to in- crease Bailey's market share in Plain- ville, a blue-collar community of less than 1,800 people about 15 miles south- west of Hartford, played a large role in Wasley's decision to leave, she said. "[I had] different views, different val- ues from management," Wasley said. "I wanted to have a locally run option for people. I wanted to be able to have the option to help people out financially if they weren't capable of paying for a service upfront." Bailey funeral director Paul Belval did not return a call seeking comment. Changing traditions Wasley said erecting her own fu- neral home — called Plainville Funeral Home — also came from a desire to provide more individualized services in an industry where customers are drifting away from the traditional in recent years. More American families are choosing to cremate their dead loved ones rather than bury them. It's a trend being felt by funeral homes across the state and country, said Ed- ward J. Sheehy Jr., president of the Con- necticut Funeral Directors Association. "They're not choosing things based on the religion they're associated with," Sheehy said. "They're choosing to handle the death in their own way." Sheehy, who holds ownership stakes in Riverview Funeral home in Shelton, and Edward F. Adzima Funeral Home in Derby, recalls 30 years ago, when the funeral director largely worked as a go-between for mourners and religious institutions that held funeral services. About 33 percent of adults living in Connecticut identify as Catholic, more Startup Venture New Plainville funeral home adds competitive wrinkle to town's death-care industry HBJ PHOTOS | SEAN TEEHAN More Americans are choosing cremation The rate of cremation surpassed that of burial in 2015, according to a 2016 report from the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), underscoring a major shift in the way Americans are caring for dead loved ones. The trend is only expected to continue going forward, according to NFDA projections. 2005 2010 2015 2017 2020 (projected) 2030 (projected) 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Americans choosing cremation vs. burial Cremation % Burial % Source: National Funeral Directors Association After more than two decades in the funeral business, Andrea Wasley, a lifelong Plainville resident, opened a funeral home in town, right next door to a competitor. Continued on next page >>

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