AVBOB: Incomparable Care and Compassion in Times of Covid and Beyond

Established in Bloemfontein in 1918, AVBOB has grown over a century into Africa’s largest Mutual Assurance Society, with around 7000 staff providing a one-stop shop for funeral insurance and funeral service. Partly due to its relative affordability, funeral cover has an exceptionally high penetration rate, and of the approximately 55 million population in South Africa, currently more than 7.6 million lives are insured by AVBOB.

“AVBOB as a mutual insurance society is the pacesetter in the funeral industry,” the group states. Across its three operating divisions it provides a comprehensive range of funeral products and services to meet the wide-ranging needs in the market, a full funeral and cremation service via a network of highly-trained staff and a factory in excess of 14,000m² where an extensive range of coffins, wreaths and fittings is manufactured.

Of course, death and the associated funeral is not something one wants to ponder at length or often. However, even in circumstances not akin to those we have seen since March 2020, in reality every person will at some stage go through this process, and in South Arica a high mortality rate together with the level of importance placed on funerals by the majority of the population, have combined to give rise to a large funeral services industry.

The sub-sectors within the industry are substantial too, among them a vibrant funeral supplies sector provides such items as family cars, flowers, catering and clothing. The funeral service market operates on a national level as well as regional and local levels.

Elaborate burials are still a significant status symbol to many in South Africa, spawning a funeral insurance industry valued at somewhere between R7.5bn and R10bn per annum. A funeral can be a hugely expensive exercise – costing anything from R12,000 to R100,000 – and as such it is today the most popular insurance cover in South Africa.

UNIQUE IN APPROACH

“Ours is the largest funeral service operation in the country,” AVBOB CEO, Carl van der Riet, states. “We are national, with around 350 branches across the country targeting low, middle- and high income markets. More than simply the biggest, being an integrated insurance and funeral service operator makes us truly unique in the country. Where other insurers stop at the point of a claim, that’s where our full-service kicks in and we fulfil the complete need of our clients.”

“The second way in which we are unique is that we are a mutual,” van der Riet adds. “In South Africa, contrary to the UK or Europe, this is really rather rare; there remain only a very small number of mutual insurers in South Africa. With it comes the absence of shareholders – instead we are entirely owned by our members, the policyholders.

“All of the excess profits generated from operations and investments, are returned to the policyholders through special bonuses and free funeral benefits. This is a unique model in South Africa and it makes our goals very focused and aligned; we do not have split loyalties between extracting value for shareholders and trying to provide value to customers – everything is focused on the policyholders.”

The approach has been crucial in shaping the company, van der Riet stresses. “Our mutual ethos pervades everything that we do.”  

This ethos has another important knock-on effect, he goes on. “We also have a very important corporate social investment (CSI) drive, whereby we believe that we are not here only for our customers, although paramount, but also for the communities that we serve. We have a range of initiatives that we are pursuing, from enterprise and supplier development through to active investments in education.

“This even extends to more unusual, cultural programmes, such as our flagship national poetry competition that we run every year in 11 languages, providing an all-important, powerful platform for people to express themselves in their mother tongue.”

Shipping containers also become fully-fledged libraries due to this highly socially-aware, community-conscious spirit, complete with books, computers, solar panels and ventilation. To date, AVBOB has delivered 57 libraries to underprivileged schools. “The whole ethos behind our significant investments into a wide range of projects and programmes is that we are owned by our members, who are part of these communities. This drives our core aim – to allow people to participate in the economic benefits from the endeavours that we undertake within their communities.”

CRUCIAL SUPPORT

Always crucial to its members, the supportive, caring and compassionate service AVBOB renders has been utterly invaluable amid the devastation of the pandemic and the toll of bereavements it has left in its wake. “It has been the most incredibly tough year,” says van der Riet. “The convergence of all the various factors was, however, a perfect reminder of why it is we are in this business, and brought home a real sense of purpose.

“I often say that it is at times of real stress that character is truly revealed, and for me, as a business and as a country we have gone through a huge amount of trauma which has evidenced the real character and purpose of the company.

“Funeral services, as a sector, is still often misunderstood,” he adds. “People envisage the men with tall top hats and dark coats mournfully presiding over the ceremony. This is not even close to accurate – what we actually provide is a mechanism for families to process grief, and to healthily transition through that experience, which can be agonisingly painful.

“As well as the practical side, we offer the advice people solicit, the counselling where required and even the mediation in family disputes which do arise; we help people to come to terms with bereavement, which then leads to closure and allows people to move on in their life. What we do, helps people to heal and move forward and this is our true value.”

AVBOB is well-versed in adversity: its formation came about at the same time as swathes of soldiers bringing back Spanish Flu at the end of the First World War, one of the worst viral epidemics of modern times, and the ensuing wave of deaths. The culture of the organisation and its deeply ingrained principles allow it to stand firm and resolute among the most intense adversity, van der Riet says.

“Over time, and almost unnoticed, people are made to feel like they belong, and part of the family. That results from the sense of commitment and belonging, and of integrity in what we stand for. This has been a key differentiator in our culture and among the people that we have in AVBOB.”

Taking such good care of its people has paid real dividends, and as it moves out of these darkest of times, AVBOB will be able to gather together the strength and knowledge accrued over these trying months to bring comfort to many more people in their time of need. “In these extraordinary circumstances, not once did our staff complain, and we are very proud of what they have accomplished,” he closes. “Clearly we are growing, and have been stretched, but it seems that this increased market share is continuing and sustaining, rather than subsiding after the waves.

“We will endeavour to employ the best aspects of technology, but never to the detriment of the empathy for which we are known. Most important is to continue building our physical infrastructure to retain the human contact we value so highly. That is what family is, ultimately.”