Villar’s death care firm sets expansion

VILLAR family-led Golden Haven Memorial Park plans to build seven new memorial parks each year, riding on its affiliate property group’s footprint in 100 key cities and municipalities nationwide.

Businessman Manuel Villar Jr., founder of the Villar group of companies, said they might also launch within this year a pre-need business that would complement Golden Haven’s death care services.

“It will be (done through) another subsidiary,” Villar said, adding that when Golden Haven recently went public, pre-need was not part of the pitch to shareholders.

“We’re preparing everything. We hope to roll out within the year,” he said.

Villar said the pre-need business would have to be done separately from Golden Haven because this was entirely a different business. While memorial park development is more like a real estate play, Villar said pre-need was more finance-related.

Golden Haven, which will have 14 memorial parks before yearend, is seen to become the biggest in the memorial park business in the country.

Given the Villar group’s extensive nationwide presence and Golden Haven’s more than 30 years’ experience in this business, Villar said rolling out new memorial parks would not be difficult for the company.

“Think Camella (Vista Land & Lifescapes’ flagship housing brand). We are in 100 cities and municipalities. I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t have Golden Haven in those cities and municipalities,” he said.

Beyond real estate sales, Golden Haven plans to expand its death care services such as memorial and cremation services.

“We will have our second columbarium and putting up our first chapel in Las Piñas. Right now, we are planning to roll out a lot of chapels nationwide,” he added. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla