Àltima unveils first custom caskets with images

Barcelona, October 31, 2013.

The funeral services company Àltima is offering a new casket personalization service, the first of its kind in Spain, which allows families to fully customize the casket with an image printed on vinyl from a selection of over twenty designs. This innovation responds to the growing trend of personalizing funeral services, from the wake to the burial or cremation.

"One of the fundamental pillars of our company is to offer innovative options tailored to different family profiles. It is very important that families feel as comfortable as possible in the final tribute to their loved one and can choose exactly how they want their farewell to be. Solutions like this new service make that possible," says Josep Ventura, Director of Funeral Services at Àltima.

The casket personalization will allow families to choose from over twenty different themed images to cover the entire surface of the casket with vinyl. These themes include football team logos (Barça, Real Madrid, Espanyol), various and iconic landscapes (Montserrat), floral motifs, musical elements (pianos, violins), or even religious motifs. Both the vinyls and the caskets are made from environmentally friendly materials, and the caskets are crafted from wood sourced from controlled logging forests. Àltima will offer this new service at the 26 funeral homes it manages in the provinces of Barcelona and Girona.

6% of Ceremonies in Barcelona are Secular

The image caskets join other personalized services offered by Àltima, including secular bronze sculptures for caskets, replacing traditional or religious elements like crosses, and diamonds made from the deceased's ashes. "However, we are seeing a significant increase in personalized ceremonies with music and texts chosen by families to honor the deceased," says Josep Ventura.

According to 2013 data from the Tanatori Ronda de Dalt in Barcelona, managed by Àltima and accounting for 19% of funeral services in the city, 60% of ceremonies include musicians, and 6% of the total are secular—a trend that has increased by 50% in the past three years. The remaining 94% are religious tributes, mostly Catholic, while other beliefs (Protestant, Muslim, Jewish, or Buddhist) remain minority.