Naseem Khan from Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, is embarrassed about the fact that his business is booming in the middle of a pandemic. “Yes, because of this outbreak, unfortunately, we have seen a surge of about 30 per cent in sales,” says the 52-year-old for whom the phrase “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” has literally translated into a winning business idea since he started LoveUrns in 2011. In his factory in Moradabad, Khan manufactures brass urns for cremation ashes. LoveUrns has a network of sales and distribution centres across the US and Europe, with warehouses in the US and the Netherlands. Now, with the rising number of Covid-19 casualties in the US and Europe, funeral services has been deemed an essential service by the US government.
Although many producers in Moradabad have sought to ride the global trend towards cremation by manufacturing designer cremation urns on the back of a thriving brass industry—estimated to be worth over Rs6,000 crore—they are mostly exporters and do not own a registered company in the US, which Khan does. Khan’s Moradabad factory, which has around 200 artisans, used to produce around 12,000 cremation urns every 20 days. The cheapest one costs $180. But now, with his factory shut, he is not sure how long his warehouse stocks will last.
“Things are fine for me now financially, but I am not sure for how long it will remain so if the lockdown in India continues,” says Khan. “If we run out of stock, the customers will turn to urns produced in China. We might even have to source from them.”