A ‘young and dynamic’ funeral directors has opened its first shop in Haverhill as it looks to continue an upward trend that has seen it take on seven staff already.
Called Hope Funerals, its High Street premises, on the corner of Duddery Road, opened last Friday under the stewardship of the company’s creator, Craig Richardson, a man with 18 years experience in the industry.
Craig, who is qualified as a level three celebrant, said of Hope Funerals: “We are a young, dynamic brand. We set up with the sole purpose of celebrating lives rather than mourning them.
Craig Richardson, funeral director and owner of Hope Funerals, outside its new shop in High Street, Haverhill. Picture: Mark Westley
“You will always mourn a life but you don’t always get to celebrate a life at a funeral.”
A unique selling point of the shop is that its staff will arrange direct (no-one attending) cremations.
With the impacts of cost of living and funeral poverty, direct cremations rose by 62 per cent in the UK year on year, said Craig.
Owner Craig Richardson is pictured with Chloe Polston (client services, left) and Taylor Bassett (funeral services administrator) in the new shop opened in High Street, Haverhill by Hope Funerals. Picture: Mark Westley
Families are also able to arrange a personalised funeral that meets their specific needs.
Unlike many other funeral directors, Hope Funerals offers payment plans and no fees are added, with just a deposit paid up front.
He said: “If someone walked into us today and said ‘my mum has died, what’s the cheapest funeral I can get’, it would be £1,250 and that’s a direct cremation.
“On average families come to us and pay £500 less for a funeral (than with other providers).
Hope Funerals has opened in High Street, Haverhill. Owner Craig Richardson is pictured with Chloe Polston (client services, left) and Taylor Bassett (funeral services administrator). Picture: Mark Westley
“The over-riding consideration here is not cost. We want to make a living, not a huge profit.”
Craig also opened Richardson Funeral Services last September, which won best start-up award at the Bury Free Press West Suffolk Business Awards 2024.
Inside the first shop to be opened by Hope Funerals, in High Street, Haverhill. Picture: Mark Westley
Based at The EpiCentre at Haverhill Research Park, it provides support for operational services, such as repatriation for funerals, and together with Hope it has a reach that goes south to Southend-on-Sea, north to the Lincolnshire border and west to Luton and Milton Keynes.
Hope Funeral’s guardian centre (a term used for a mortuary) is in Bury St Edmunds. Craig also plans to open shops in Bury and Thetford in the next three months and to take on 12 new new staff by July.