Industry & Services >> CEO Interviews >> January 29, 2001
BRENT D. CASSITY is CEO of Forever Enterprises-St. Louis. Upon his
university graduation, Mr. Cassity entered the family business and
relocated to Austin, Texas to develop a pre-need marketing team of
counselors for National Prearranged Services, Inc., a prearranged
funeral service company affiliated with the Cassity holding company. In
his first year at that position, he set an unchallenged record of sales
and was promoted to Regional Vice President in charge of the Texas
region. In 1990, Mr. Cassity returned to St. Louis and assumed
responsibility of Cassity Heritage Funeral Homes, becoming its President
and Chief Executive Officer. After analyzing the marketing strategies
and service programs of the funeral industry, he introduced a series of
innovations that included expanded hospitality programs, video tributes,
and aggressive advertising. Mr. Cassity pioneered an acquisition formula
consisting of purchasing run-down, neglected properties and transforming
both their facilities and services to make them the preeminent
facilities in their communities. By following this strategy and
implementing his innovations, Mr. Cassity achieved an unprecedented
market share growth in this industry: Cassity Heritage Funeral Homes'
market share more than doubled under his management. In 1996, after
evaluating the premiums being paid for properties by the three industry
consolidators competing for acquisitions, Mr. Cassity elected to cease
acquisition in what he judged to be a market environment of
overvaluation. He sold the funeral home division of nine funeral homes
and two cemeteries to Service Corporation International (SCI), and
assumed the responsibilities of President of National Prearranged
Services, Inc. Under his leadership, NPS realized a 64% growth from $28
million total sales in 1995, to $50 million in sales year end 1997. Mr.
Cassity held back Bellerive from the SCI sale to make this cemetery the
prototype of his new business plan. This plan is to acquire metropolitan
cemeteries, inject their proven operation systems and market strategies
and overlay the Forever Biographies to create a 'Library of Lives' for
each community they serve. Hollywood Cemetery is the 14th property the
Cassity brothers have energized with these techniques. The New York
Times proclaimed the revitalized Hollywood Cemetery, 'the cemetery of
the 21st Century.' He has a BA from the University of Missouri. Profile
Mr. Cassity: We got into the business in an unconventional way. My
brother (Tyler) had been taping some music and ran across a tape
