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Becs Bartells in her garage with prototypes feature

BusinessFebruary 27, 2020

No frills: the coffin company that wants to bury you in cardboard

Becs Bartells in her garage with prototypes feature

You might be trying to reduce your carbon footprint in everyday life, but what about in death? Alex Casey talks to Becs Bartells, founder of Outside the Box about creating the perfect cardboard casket. 

Becs Bartells often forgets she has an empty coffin sitting in the back of her station wagon, which can make for a lot of petrified glances when she is loading up her groceries in the busy supermarket carpark. “People basically know me as ‘the coffin lady’ now, so that’s fun,” she laughs. If only those terrified onlookers knew that this coffin lady has tens, nay hundreds, more caskets waiting for them in her garage at home. 

The creator and founder of Outside the Box Cardboard Caskets, Bartells is preparing to launch their 100% natural and sustainable coffin this month. Bartells first had the idea a decade ago while preparing for her Nana’s funeral after being struck by the limited range of coffins available. “I couldn’t stop thinking about how all the caskets always looked the same, they were all made of the same materials and they looked quite cold and harsh. That’s when cardboard first came to mind.” 

Having studied industrial design at Massey University, Bartells had already created a sustainable cardboard furniture range for her final project and couldn’t shake the idea of using her skills to create a cheap, eco-friendly cardboard coffin. In 2018 she began testing the market by visiting funeral homes across Auckland. “I saw there was a niche there – they all looked the same, all made from MDF or solid wood and, for the most part, the eco thing didn’t come up.” 

That “eco thing” is the carbon footprint left when you die, an issue being combatted by the growing green burial movement worldwide, now beginning to to blossom here in New Zealand. “People are becoming so much more aware of their impact they have on the world around them,” Bartells says, “I know that natural burials won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s about giving people those options.”

The next two years contained a lot of failures, collapses, and trying to convince people to test the prototypes. “That was really hard, nobody really wanted to come to my house and lie in a coffin,” says Bartells. Working with structural design experts and using a lot of water bottles to simulate various possible weights, she finally created a cardboard prototype that was easy to assemble, made out of 100% natural products and the first coffin in New Zealand to be certified by Natural Burials

Becs Bartells during the first production run. Photo: Supplied

“It ticks a lot of boxes: they biodegrade a lot quicker than solid wood, they can be cremated about 10-15 minutes quicker, and they can be flat-packed so you can get more into a truck.” The weight limit has currently been tested to up to 320kg, and a handy instructional video shows how to put them together in less than two minutes. “We’ve used a few pine locking pins, but that’s better than other cardboard coffins that have metal screws and staples.” 

Beyond the environmental benefits, the cardboard exterior also has the potential for friends and family to get creative. “The traditional caskets have that slick veneer on them, so the cool thing about these is that you can do a collage, write on them or paint them, it’s a lot more intimate and personal,” says Bartells. “I imagine it could be a very healing and cathartic experience for some people to get that close to their loved one and leave their mark like that.” 

Becs Bartells and first casket off the production run. Photo: Supplied

Bartells knows that the Outside the Box experience won’t be for everyone. “A lot of the old school funeral directors aren’t into cardboard and think it’s not as dignified, and that’s cool. Everyone’s got their own feelings and their own reasoning,” says Bartells. “I think it’s a positive thing, it’s just giving people an option in an industry where there aren’t that many and catering to those who want to leave a lower carbon footprint when they die.” 

Attitudes are changing around death thanks to shows like The Casketeers and documentaries like The Coffin Club. Bartells herself has journeyed from being “pretty freaked out” about dying to launching a casket of her own. “I think it’s been a really good experience to embrace death. It’s going to happen to every one of us and we’re all going to need a coffin. After visiting so many funeral homes and seeing how the process works, I’m much more okay with it now.” 

Still, what to do with the garage bursting full of unused coffin prototypes? “I have a very understanding flatmate so I don’t have to get rid of them all just yet – they’ve got so much history” she says.

“Maybe we’ll throw a really good Halloween party this year.” 

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NZME financial report

BusinessFebruary 26, 2020

NZME’s 2019 financial report: The good, the bad and the huge loss, explained

NZME financial report

NZME, New Zealand’s largest media company, released its 2019 financial report yesterday. Michael Andrew checks in on the health of huge brands like the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB.

It was apparently a good year for NZME, which yesterday reported a strong financial performance with $19.7m operating profit and the growth in its digital subscriptions and radio assets.

But then it also reported a $165million loss.

“Net profit in 2019 was impacted by an impairment to the carrying value of non-amortising intangible assets of $175.0 million as at December 2019, including goodwill, masthead brands and other brands,” the media statement explained.

While these terms are enough to give anyone who isn’t an accountant an aneurism, in this case it’s not actually that bad.

What it means is that NZME bought some assets years ago for a perceived value over and above what the assets were worth, known in accounting as goodwill. It did this to reflect the hard-to-value aspects on the balance sheet – talented employees and beloved brands for instance – otherwise known as intangible assets.

Now it turns out that those intangible assets aren’t worth so much, and the board decided to impair (adjust) them to reflect the what they are more realistically worth.

According to Glenn Rechtschaffen, an accounting teaching fellow at the University of Auckland, a loss of this size may look like a disaster on paper, but in this case it’s a fairly standard, and probably one-off accounting entry to reflect the true value of the company’s current assets – and doesn’t actually involve any cash flow.

“It would not be a faithful representation of what’s going on if they leave these assets at their current figures. They’re going to write these down to be more realistic about what’s really going down. But at the same time, there’s no cash flow involved.”

In reality, NZME’s $19m operating profit is a decent result, considering the perils of New Zealand’s media climate, achieved in part through shrewd cost-cutting measures throughout the business.

Social media giants continue to gobble up advertising revenue

While last year’s performance was strong, NZME’s total operating revenue was down by 4% on the year before, which CEO Michael Boggs attributed to “a tough year overall for advertising” and the “impact of global players like Facebook and Google.”

However, he said the company is still in the position to look for commercial opportunities that “lead the future of news and journalism in New Zealand,” including the elusive acquisition of rival company Stuff.

Radio continues to thrive

More listeners have been tuning into NZME radio stations, with the audience market share up from 34.9 to 35.9 per cent per cent on the year before. The radio assets are still making good money too, with an increase in revenue growth of 2% compared to 2018 and growth of 5% in the second half of 2019.

NZME also announced further future growth in the radio assets in addition to the recent juggle of radio hosts which saw Jono and Ben jump to breakfast on the Hits and Toni Street and Sam Wallace move to the Coast.

Print is shrivelling

Despite ads for the likes of Emirates and Specsavers regularly dominating the first two pages of the NZ Herald, NZME’s print assets continue to leak advertising revenue. Again citing a challenging advertising market, it reported a 10% decline on the year before to $102.2m, despite surveys showing record levels of readers, with an average issue readership of 465,000.

Premium subscriptions are growing… gradually

While Herald premium subscribers are growing, the momentum appears to be slowing. The company had 15,000 paid digital subscribers in the first half of the year, and finished the second half with 21,000.

However, with the slow decay of print, the company said it would continue to develop the platform with an imminent launch of an “enhanced app with a new look and improved functionality.”

People really like houses

For most New Zealanders, Harry Potter might be a more realistic read than the Herald’s real estate section. Yet NZME’s OneRoof platform is proving popular and has quadrupled its revenue from $700,000 to $2.8million. It now has 75% of residential sales listings in New Zealand and 95% of residential listings in Auckland.

NZME still wants Stuff

“NZME firmly believes it is the right owner for Stuff,” said Boggs.

NZME may in fact be the only buyer for Stuff, which has attracted very little interest since its Australian owner Nine News put it up for sale last year.

Despite the Commerce Commission ruling against a merger of NZME and Stuff in 2017 citing concerns about a loss of plurality, the media landscape has changed considerably since then and the pressure on some companies is getting very real.

Both companies are confident that a merger under a Kiwishare scheme could help protect jobs, increase audience adverting revenue and effectively muster a united front against their ever-more powerful social media foes.

But wait there's more!