7 September 2018

 Written by Director, Gareth Coles: Over the summer you may have been made aware of the considerable turmoil in the funeral industry at the moment… Well, behind the scenes here at Coles we’ve been pulling out all the stops to campaign on your behalf for fairer funeral prices for all – and wanted to share […]

22 June 2018

Written by Services Manager, Claire Robertson: This month we’ve been talking about how it’s important to have choice when it comes to end of life care and funeral plans.  There is always a lot to think about when somebody dies and making funeral arrangements can be stressful. All too often, people feel hurried into making […]

14 June 2018

Written by Director, Gareth Coles: Last week, there were lots of news headlines about the lack of transparency and ‘confusion’ in the funeral industry, particularly around pricing.  We couldn’t agree more with Senior Director of Markets at Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Daniel Gordon, when he said to BBC News: “People can understandably be very […]

4 June 2018

Written by Director, Gareth Coles: If you’ve listened to the news over the weekend you may well have picked up a story that is also making newspaper headlines – about the price of funerals, the choice available to people, and the conduct of companies selling pre-paid funeral plans. In the last couple of days, Ministers […]

14 May 2018

Written by Director Gareth Coles: Today marks the start of Dying Matters Awareness Week – a week dedicated to encouraging and helping people to talk more openly about dying, death and bereavement, and to make plans for the end of life. As you might expect, this is a mission that is very close to my […]

25 March 2018

Written by Director, Gareth Coles: The clocks have gone forward, the sun is out here in Cardiff – and traditionally, this is the time of year we think about spring-cleaning our homes, tidying up the garden and getting our affairs in order. Earlier this month I wrote about how, if you’re looking for a new beginning […]

12 March 2018

Written by Director, Gareth Coles: I started planning my blogs about ‘New Beginnings’, our theme this month, the day Cardiff experienced a foot of snow on St David’s Day! Just a few days later, our beautiful new baby daughter, Sophia, finally joined us in time for us to have an extra special Mother’s Day this […]

15 January 2018

Written by Director, Gareth Coles: Following on from my blog on resolutions, I understand from some of the feedback that ‘getting organised’ is high on the agenda for lots of people this January! (It’s certainly high on our agenda as my wife and I get ready for the arrival of the newest addition to our […]

2 October 2017

Written by Gareth Coles: Throughout September we were actively campaigning to raise awareness about the importance of talking to your loved ones about what you want to happen when you die.Truthfully, it strikes me as strange that in this day and age when we spend months planning for Christmas; when it’s not unusual to take a […]

22 September 2017

Written by Gareth Coles: If you read the Echo, you may have read Cardiff pensioner Glenys Burrows’ tragic story of how her home in Ely was burgled while she slept, and the money she had been saving to pay for her funeral was stolen. It really touched us here at Coles and we simply had to […]

10 September 2017

Written by Gareth Coles: Today marks the end of Organ Donation Week 2017 – the subject of a great deal of discussion in the British media about the importance of organ donation and letting your loved ones know how you feel about it.The biggest headline this week was the story about the donated organs of […]