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
Could it be over before it even really gets started?
It must be hard to spin this one in a positive light:)
Unfortunately, “BS goes and Money talks”. Perhaps the “real owners” of the company realized their CEO’s over projections and over excitement about a clearly saturated market. I’m really sorry for him since this was his beloved project and nobody can deny the quality of their product line. I’m afraid that fluidpusher may be right and this act could be finish before it started. This is just another sign of times that our funeral profession is going trough. Good luck to Mr. Colson.
Only a group of fools would commence a new casket manufacturing operation when the industry trend is NO CASKETS, NO FUNERALS and NO BURIALS!
Acually, the buzz in the industry is that he was fired indeed.
That’s what I have heard, also, he was told to go.
Why hasn’t Genesis released a statement? One would expect that they would have at least said something about the resignation or termination of their CEO Mr. Colson. Ignoring an issue of this importance is a PR blunder.