InvoCare Limited will close its Southern California funeral business but continue with its cremations at Macera Crematory, the company announced Tuesday.
The Australian company’s Southern California division was launched in February 2015. The closure will impact four employees in San Diego and two in Los Angeles.
Demand and case averages for funeral operations were lower than expected, the company said.
“The company has recently concluded that the U.S. funeral business was unlikely to reach breakeven by the mid 2018 target date within the capital limit that had been allocated to this project,” the company said in a press release.
Macera Crematory is based in Los Angeles and has a location at 1020 Fuller St. in Santa Ana.
The number of cremations has surpassed traditional burials, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. Its 2016 report found the rate of cremation is now 48.5 percent while the burial rate is 45.4 percent.
The group also reported the number of funeral homes in the nation has been decreasing since at least 2004.
Contact the writer: hmadans@ocregister.com or Twitter: @HannahMadans
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