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Retailers acknowledge ample obesity market PDF Print E-mail
Written by DeadGirl   
Sunday, 30 May 2004
Judging by what was sold in stores, it was as if obese people didn't exist.

Scales topped out at 350 pounds. Fanny packs maxed out at 40-inch waistlines. Portable chairs might as well have been made of straw.

But manufacturers are waking up to the fact that not everyone is a Tiger Woods or Kate Moss, much less John Goodman or Queen Latifah. Companies - including two in southeast Indiana - are starting to make products that cater to people of real girth.

Quite a few companies make products for mega-sized cadavers. In fact, four of these casket makers are located in Indiana.

Astral Industries of Lynn, Ind., makes a 20-gauge steel "oversize" casket that runs 29 inches wide. Batesville Casket Co., another Hillenbrand unit, offers a line of "double oversize" caskets that are up to 38 inches wide. Another Lynn company, Goliath Casket, makes what is perhaps the most capacious of all caskets - 8 feet long and 52 inches wide.

"The demand for our oversized and double-oversized caskets just goes up every year," said Batesville Casket spokesman Joe Weigel. "America's getting bigger. Funeral directors are saying they want more oversize."

Chris Barrott, executive vice president of operations at Aurora Casket in Aurora, Ind., said the width of a typical casket has grown from 21 inches to 24 inches over the years. That's fine for people weighing up to 250 pounds, he said. To fit larger people, Aurora Casket has added 28- and 30-inch-wide caskets to its lineup.

"It's been a growing business over the last 20 years, but it's really kicked in over the last five years. We've seen that business nearly double," Barrott said.

More is less

Oddly enough, Aurora charges less for the larger caskets. Depending on options, Aurora caskets cost $1,400 to $3,000 retail. The oversize models cost 5 percent to 10 percent less because they are simpler in style and come with fewer options. Of the roughly 7,000 metal caskets that Aurora sold in 2003, about 5 percent were oversize models, Barrott said.

"We're definitely seeing the challenges of the industry," he said. "It's not only affected the casket manufacturers, but the vault and mausoleum manufacturers and, to some extent, the sizes of cemetery plots."

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/05/30/biz_weightyproducts30.html
 
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