In brief

We are also proud of the growth achieved in 2023. The insurance portfolio increased by over 50,000 policyholders and our member database by more than 85,000 members. This means that we have now in total over 3.3 million members and more than 5.5 million policyholders. The number of funerals we provided also saw a slight increase to nearly 54,000.

Based on the strength of the DELA group, we provide recognisable, warm and personal services. Every new employee takes part in the Warm Welcome Days, becoming familiar with our core values and DNA which then serves as the starting point for our daily activities.

To further reinforce our growth ambitions in 2023, we started a programme called ‘business in control’. This supports the quality of our service provision, risk management and reputation. The programme is based on acting with integrity and preserving high standards, supported by a culture of accountability and continuous improvement. Business in control ultimately rests on the actions of our employees.

We also closely monitor our sustainability. Major aspects include the electrification of funeral furnaces and transport, working towards energy-neutral buildings, placing solar panels and purchasing green energy. We constantly assess our business activities to ensure our growth is in harmony with the social impact we hope to realise. 

We are determined to be of even greater value to our members. Our cooperative nature is crucial in this respect; members have always had a clear input and help us enhance our service provision. We are also proud of new initiatives such as the remembrance place set up in Belgium as a place of comfort for parents who lose their child during pregnancy or birth. This idea is a good example of how we listen carefully to the actual wishes of the bereaved.

We also believe in joining forces to provide members and customers with an even broader range of solutions and services. In the Netherlands we acquired the remaining shares in the Associatie & IJmond funeral association during 2023 and finalised the operational integration of Yarden and CVU Uitvaartzorg. We are also pleased to have partnered with the municipality of Lingewaard (NL) to open the new ’t Karbrugsche Veld crematorium with its modern, warm ambiance and ample flexibility. In Belgium we took a majority interest in Borgno (Mons) and acquired both Marion (Namur) and Vanheste (Bruges).

We are pleased that the general meeting agreed this year to extend membership of the cooperative to include current Belgian policyholders. It also confirmed an adjustment of the premium measure to ensure we are less vulnerable to negative interest rates. This makes a positive contribution to DELA remaining a financially healthy cooperative for members in the future.

A number of new initiatives were started in 2023 to make our organisation even more resilient. Where possible we will increase the transparency and efficiency of our products and services to provide customers with a uniform experience. Dedicated teams were set up in the Netherlands to ensure us an even better understanding of the needs and wishes of members. We are also studying which questions related to passing on and remembrance are most common among members, not only when someone dies but increasingly at other stages of the journey of life. We see it is as important to continuously empathise with the expectations that members, policyholders, the bereaved and guests have of our daily activities.

In addition we have also been participating and investing in companies that strengthen solidarity and a sense of unity via Voor Elkaar Holding. Our partners aim to have a social impact via informal care support and financial support & planning. In 2023, the holding made a new investment in Prikkl, a coaching and advisory platform that helps people in the Netherlands make smart financial choices at all stages of their lives. 

Digitisation helps keep us on course as well as adding to the overall customer experience. A multi-year digital transition project in the Netherlands is streamlining our insurance systems and processes, for instance. In Belgium we continued to develop the digital communication with our distribution partners to better serve customers. In Germany we use the online services of renowned business partners to communicate with customers and provide them with an optimal service.

We are proud that we can provide members and customers with an increasing number of digital solutions such as livestreams and online remembrance pages. Developments like the Funeral Planner (enabling people to start independently arranging a funeral), the Succession Simulator (a tool to calculate expected inheritance tax) and an app for grief processing in children (mijnherinneringaanjou.be) are just some of the options. 

Despite the turbulent financial markets – mainly caused by geopolitical unrest – our investment portfolio had a healthy return of 4.6 percent in 2023. At the same time, we limited the rise in funeral costs by committing to competitive purchase prices and controlling costs. This benefits the premium for our funeral insurance, which is inflation-proof.

We also limit the premium increase via our profit share scheme. In 2023 we were able to grant members and policyholders a record profit share of over €249 million, and on 1 January 2024 we determined a premium increase of 7.57 percent for the DELA Uitvaartplan in the Netherlands. Without profit sharing, the premium increase would have been 12.18 percent. The net result was negative due to the high profit share.

We continue to work hard every day to provide high-quality services. This has resulted in a stable customer satisfaction at the group level. Belgian customers are increasingly satisfied with our funeral services. Our colleagues do their utmost to make every goodbye a memorable one, while maintaining a focus on the wishes of the family and the deceased. In Germany we also saw a rise in customer satisfaction levels. We support German brokers by proactively organising webinars and providing them with accurate product information.

DELA believes it is important to have a robust and sound reputation so our activities are partly aimed at maintaining and strengthening this. We have an excellent reputation among members and non-members alike, scoring especially well in the field of financial support and our contribution to ‘remembering and passing on’. We saw a slight improvement in our reputation compared to the previous year.

Our commitment is also recognised externally and has won us awards. In Belgium we received two DECAVI awards this year, as best funeral insurance and for our social efforts. In addition to supporting members, policyholders, bereaved and guests, we also continue to invest in our own employees. In the Netherlands and Belgium, Effectory again named us as a World-class Workplace. We are proud to say that in the Netherlands we even came in first in the category for companies with over 1,000 employees. 

In the past year, it was announced that CEO and chairman of the Executive Board Edzo Doeve was retiring.
Sandra Schellekens took over his position on 27 January 2024. Edzo’s dedication and leadership helped shape the course of DELA for 20 years and we cannot thank him enough for his tireless efforts.

The knowledge, experience and energy of our employees makes us confident that we can lead our organisation to new successes. While resilience and determination will continue to be crucial to make progress, we are ready to explore new paths with our members and customers.

Edzo Doeve started as the general director and only Board member of DELA in 2004. “While instantly touched by the dedication of the employees and importance of their work, I also felt a sense of sparseness and greyness. The two worlds did not line up and during a team-building session I suddenly realised why. Saying goodbye is mostly about something else entirely, namely moving on after a loss. People may approach us to organise a farewell, but our importance mainly lies in helping them move on with their lives and share memories. This insight helped us tell the story of DELA in a different way. We started thinking about our place in the world and concluded that, as an organisation, we have a very significant social task. A task that places us right at the heart of society.” 

This new context created space for change. “We started adding more colour to our buildings and developed new services such as after-care for the bereaved. We also initiated some great partnerships, including with the Dutch women’s volleyball team. These things all generated energy.” Over the following years the service provision was enhanced and new ambitions & goals determined. Highlights included the development of a sustainable investment strategy and being the first funeral company to introduce an electric furnace. Nonetheless, Edzo emphasises, it’s not just the big steps that matter. The small details which may not be immediately visible are equally important. He is also very proud of DELA’s art collection, which now contains some 700 works by artists schooled in the Netherlands and Belgium. “They are showcased in our buildings and encourage people to contemplate. The pieces are comforting or tell a story, both of which can be of great value to the bereaved. Our art collection reflects the overall enhancement of our service provision.” 

Under Edzo’s leadership, the number of DELA members gradually grew to more than 3.3 million over the 20 years. “We have always been good at addressing needs and changing course in due time,” Edzo explains. “When the online environment became increasingly relevant, we addressed this by developing channels. In addition to dedicated online marketing about the benefits of our products, we started telling the story of DELA. We created some superb campaigns in this process. ‘Why wait (to say something nice)’ shared our core belief that people can mean a lot to each other. ‘The seven of your Life’ successfully appealed to younger generations. And through it all, DELA grew into a warm, colourful organisation nestled at the heart of life.” 

This growth was also made possible by increasingly exploring and utilising the strength of the cooperative. “A cooperative builds solidarity and shows that we are stronger together. DELA stands for ‘carry each other’s burdens’ and that begins by supporting each other before we can reap any rewards.” This approach proved very successful, especially in more difficult times. The new European regulations on solvency introduced in a context of extremely low interest rates proved challenging for long-term investors like DELA. “This is why we agreed to the so-called premium measure with the general meeting: when interest rates are extremely low, we can slightly raise our premiums. The logic of this measure has since proven its value and means that we can continue to realise good profits in the long term to ensure our funeral insurance policies hold their value.” 

It was this financial robustness that allowed DELA to acquire Yarden. “Yarden is a good match for DELA due to the major cultural similarities in background and the geographical addition of services. Where Yarden was active, we were less present, and vice versa. The acquisition has given us a better representation in the north and east of the Netherlands. We were also able to offer a lower premium increase thanks to purchasing and scale benefits.”

In addition to the acquisition of Yarden DELA increasingly expanded its services across the border. We have been active in Belgium since 1989, and operating in Germany since 2018. “Our cooperative is built on two concepts, namely solidarity and continuity,” Edzo continues. “If the collective continues to grow, we can better guarantee both these concepts. The Dutch funeral insurance market appears to be saturated. Although we’re still growing it is very modest, making expansion in other markets essential. DELA has enjoyed healthy growth in Belgium over the past ten years and we now have Germany, too. I believe these developments guarantee the further evolution of the cooperative in the years to come.”

Edzo underlines that all the above has only been possible by the incredible dedication of DELA’s employees. “It is vital that everyone enjoys giving their best every day. The fact that they are doing so is something we have achieved together. It is based on the philosophy that everyone matters, whatever their position or role, and that staff actually feel that too. We have participated in various initiatives to assess our employership and won quite a few awards in this field. These efforts have motivated us to further explore what makes us happy as colleagues, and how we can grow personally. We also organised round-table sessions in the Netherlands every three years, welcoming colleagues to nicely decorated tables where they exchanged ideas about what they find important in life. These types of initiatives have a genuine impact: we are really doing this together, everyone matters.” 

The service provision around funerals has become more important over the past 20 years, says Edzo. As a result, DELA has provided its members not only with support with the funeral itself but also in making memories and moving on. In this context Edzo is proud of Voor Elkaar Holding, established in 2022 to enable DELA to expand its societal role. “Our cooperative is based on solidarity in the area of saying goodbye and moving on. As good as this is, there’s also a big need for solidarity in other areas such as caring for loved ones and financial support. VEH will contribute to the continuity of DELA as a whole over time and generate sufficient income, although we’re aware that the latter will take time.” 

Edzo thanks all colleagues for their commitment, tireless efforts and heart for the cooperative. “Together we have built a strong organisation that is located at the heart of society and fulfils an important societal function. An organisation that is loyal to its origins and aware of its constantly changing environment. An organisation with a wealth of plans to ensure it can remain meaningful in the near future and beyond. I wish Sandra Schellekens the best of luck in her new role and am confident that DELA is in good hands with her and the other Executive and Supervisory Board members.”