Genesis Casket Company CEO Resigns

We have spent a lot of time over the last 8 months covering the unfolding of new funeral industry start-up Genesis Casket Company. Debuting at the 2011 NFDA convention last October Genesis quickly started to create a buzz around the industry with their aggressive “low price” structure.

The company has been on a roller coaster ride with many ups and downs since launching with a scaled back product line last October, but the ride hasn’t been out of the ordinary for a start up when compared to most start up companies outside of the funeral profession. They have experienced over projections, a delay in full product line release, layoffs, and now the resignation of CEO and industry veteran Tony Colson.

We first heard about the resignation of Mr. Colson last week from an email by an anonymous reader. We of course did our due diligence in confirming the resignation, unfortunately we were not able to receive a comment from Genesis Casket Company in time for this article, but the company’s website, www.genesiscasket.com, confirms the resignation on their leadership page as Tony Colson is no longer listed. We also noticed that Denny Knigga, Vice President of Operations, is also no longer with the company.

In all of my conversations with funeral directors about the Genesis Casket (the product itself), the most apparent thing funeral directors commented on was the luster, brilliance, and over all finish on a Genesis Casket. In an interview we did with (then CEO) Tony Colson, and Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Joe Weigel, following the NFDA convention, they stressed the fact that they had invested heavily in the technologies they were using. Mr. Colson was quoted saying, “As people saw in the manufacturing video at NFDA we are primarily roboticly applying our finish, that is as progressive of a finish as most automotive grade Class A finishes.”

Genesis Casket Company is still in full production and we have heard (from readers in Michigan) that the company is currently exhibiting at the Michigan Funeral Directors Association annual convention and have even debuted a new, never seen before, metal casket.

We apologize that our efforts to receive a comment for this article were not successful. We have sent a request for a follow up interview in the coming weeks.

Here are a few links to the articles and interviews we have done with Genesis Casket Company over the last 8 months:

3 MONTHS INTO PRODUCTION: WHAT IS THE CURRENT STATE OF GENESIS CASKET COMPANY? – http://connectingdirectors.com/articles/5207-3-months-into-production-what-is-the-current-state-of-genesis-casket-company

GENESIS CASKET SEES LAYOFFS AS TEMPORARY; LOOKS TO RAMP UP PRODUCTION – http://connectingdirectors.com/articles/5066-genesis-casket-sees-layoffs-as-temporary-looks-to-ramp-up-production

GENESIS CASKET COMPANY NOW IN FULL PRODUCTION – http://connectingdirectors.com/articles/3439-genesis-casket-company-now-in-full-production

EXCLUSIVE: GENESIS CASKET COMPANY EXPLAINS SIMPLIFIED PRICING STRUCTURE, DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY AND RELATIONSHIP WITH GESTAMP NORTH AMERICA – http://connectingdirectors.com/articles/3253-exclusive-genesis-casket-company-explains-simplified-pricing-structure-distribution-strategy-and-relationship-with-gestamp-north-america

GENESIS CASKET COMPANY, AND NEW TECH INNOVATION DRIVE NFDA 2011 – http://connectingdirectors.com/articles/3204-genesis-casket-company-and-new-tech-innovation-drive-nfda-2011