People super-sizing even in death

CARYS MONTEATH

ROOMY RESTING PLACE: Neville Costain, cabinetmaker for Baldwin Furniture, shows a large coffin. As people get bigger, larger coffins are also needed when they die.

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Coffin-makers are super-sizing caskets to meet demand as obesity increases in New Zealand.

Manufacturers report that orders for oversized coffins are increasing, while standard coffin widths have expanded to cater for bigger Kiwi bodies.

Christchurch coffin manufacturer Mark Pattinson, of Baldwin Furniture, said industry-standard widths had increased from 49.5 centimetres to 58.5cm in the past 30 years.

The company stocked four oversized coffins, ranging from 63.5cm wide to 89cm.

Auckland's Western Caskets managing director Ed Campbell said coffin sizes had been "creeping up". The company's oversized range started from 53cm wide, and the largest coffin, at 76cm wide by 48cm deep, could fit "most people".

"We've had to make a few larger ones than that," he said.

"We're virtually to the stage where we're looking at putting a larger casket into stock."

One the largest coffins used in the United States was a 2.1-metre-wide casket built for a 408-kilogram man who died in Alaska.

Campbell said the largest coffin the company had made – measuring 1.8m wide by 1m deep – was an "extreme" example.

"We certainly questioned [the sizing] because we couldn't believe it could be that."

About three "special" coffins were custom-made each year, he said.

Cremation Society of Canterbury general manager Barbara Terry said larger coffin sizes could become problematic for Christchurch facilities.

"Maybe, in time, we will have to look at our technology to see if we need to install a larger cremator," she said. The chamber would need to be larger to accommodate bigger caskets.

A "matter of centimetres" increase in coffin size would make cremation difficult in Christchurch, Terry said.

Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand president Tony Garing, general manager of Christchurch's John Rhind Funeral Directors, said there was not much demand for over-sized coffins in Canterbury.

"We're a big company, and about 80 per cent of our caskets would be in what we call the standard-adult range, bearing in mind that adults can be 15 or 16 stone [95kg or 102kg] without being obese," he said.

There was no extra charge for larger burial plots, Garing said.

- © Fairfax NZ News