It appears as though Genesis Casket Company is making drastic shifts to change the direction of the company.
The company is shutting down operations in Michigan, North Carolina, Illinois, and Tennessee and has fired 5 sales reps in those areas.
Also, we have heard and confirmed that Ed Tuggle and VP of Sales, Steve Penman are no longer with the company.
This seems to be a move the company is making so in an effort to focus more on distributors and less on going direct to the funeral home.
This raises two big questions:
1. Does this mean the simplified low pricing model will disappear?
2. Or worse, is this the end of Genesis Casket Company?
I like their caskets and I hope they stay in business. In Illinois, the
move to have Hoffman distribute their caskets works out even better for
me because Hoffman is superb. I just hope the cost doesn’t go up.
Yes, it really is all about you.
The line said COMMENT, I gave mine, from my point of view. Instead of taking pot shots at me, why don’t you actually COMMENT on how it affects you.
Great comments, GUEST! Message me on Facebook and compare notes on how it is working with Hoffman.
I said the same thing you did about Hoffman and Steve S shot the same thing at me instead of telling his own story.
There was over capacity in the US for making caskets before Genesis came onto the scene. They would have needed to produce something truly revolutionary to have a chance, but that’s not what they brought to market.
It’s a shame to see millions of dollars wasted on a project like Genesis. But some lessons get learned the hard way.
The truly bad news here is that projects in and around funeral service that truly deserve the kinds of venture capital Genesis received, will have a harder time getting funded.
First there is any over abundance of over priced caskets and what Genesis brought to the market was a new pricing structure. Simple pricing with out the demands of the manufacturer giving discounts based on volume sold. It is a simple straight forward price per unit that is the same (and also lower than most other casket companies) regardless of how many you order or what your volume is, no rebates to the SCI’s at 48% while independents are lucky to get 18% to 24% rebates.
Secondly there was no venture capital used this company is privately held by the owners of Gestamp North America. The product is not revolutionary, but the production line is state of the art and greatly reduces production cost and waste materials. I highly doubt that the owners of Gestamp would consider their own monies as “venture capital” or consider funding someone else’s project.
Well, it looked like a venture capital deal from a distance and may as well have been. And in the end, the type of funding is immaterial.
It was a very speculative investment, in a declining market, that was already over capacity, using an incrementally (at best) better business plan.
I can appreciate the comments about finish and all, I remember Marsellus when it was Marsellus (now those were beautiful caskets!). But none of that matters when a family switches to cremation or green burial. Steadily the stamped metal casket becomes irrelevant across much of America–and that is the real problem for the Genesis Casket project.
Genesis makes a great US manufactured casket, at reasonable prices. Interesting how they’ve forced Batesville and the rest to respond or continue to lose business to them. I’m betting that they’re making “go to market” adjustments with the internal changes. Let’s see what happens before writing them off.
Just saw this posting, I agree with FD in Ky, love their caskets. Finishes and eye appeal are excellent. Since I started using them I’ve heard nothing but positives from my family’s. I can give family’s affordable choices that I can still make pretty good profits on. God send with the cremation rate increasing every month. I too hope they are just changing how they get their caskets to us.
It seems as if sales are down on a weekly basis
The all distributor is not working. How much money can Genesis afford to lose before the plug is pulled?
Yes! The exteriors are pretty good, but the interior bottom of the caskets are no longer sprayed with any type of material or paint.
Take a look sometime.