Genesis Products offers a variety of hardwood and non-wood products for RVs and prefab homes.

As the RV industry trends toward the baby boomer market and environmentally friendly products, Genesis Products Inc. is pushing itself to stay ahead of the curve. Not that the company is old-fashioned – President Jon Helmuth and CEO Jon Wenger founded the company only five years ago, and today it has approximately 200 employees, three plants and annual revenues of $60 million. It manufactures laminated and hardwood cabinets, paneling, doors and other interior products for RV and prefabricated home OEMs.    

“What sets us apart are the intangibles – it’s easy to say you value quality and service, but we try to have a really different business philosophy,” Wenger says. “For example, our management is structured to ensure we get our best resources out to the customer. We focus on the consulting aspect of products, adding value to customers by being experts on the products. Our best managers are working outside [our facilities] helping customers.”

Genesis’ service will continue to represent its greatest value to customers, Helmuth says. “We’re trying to always be on the forefront, playing an advisory role,” he says. “Our products aren’t necessarily different in terms of how they’re made, but in terms of how we help the customer realize how our products can help them.

“A lot of times, customers are using a certain length product when they could be using a shorter or longer one that would better suit their needs,” he adds. “If someone is using an eight-foot panel and doesn’t really need to, we’ll tell them they could be using a seven-foot sheet, for example. It shows the customer that we’re not just interested in selling; we’re focused on helping them be successful.”

Product Capabilities
Genesis’ products include two full-size lamination lines. Its film-coated boards are used in RV interiors. Panels can be finished with additional treatments, including edge banding.

The company’s three wrapping trim lines – which are typically laminated – includes door and window frames, crown molding and smaller products such as picture frames. It also manufactures a complete line of hardwood cabinet doors and laminated interior passage doors. Cabinet doors are made with a variety of finishing options – distressing, glazing, metallic and even and aged finishes. Genesis produces more than 30,000 doors each week.

Sustainable Practices
The company works to stay ahead of product trends, including the use of sustainable materials, Wenger says. “We use sustainable materials as much as possible,” he notes. “A lot of the stuff we make is used with renewable hardwood products, as a result of reforestation.”

Genesis recycles 20 million pounds of films, boards and scrap yearly. “That’s part of the lean manufacturing process,” Wenger notes. “It keeps our landfills from getting filled up and allows us to stay lean and focus on products that are low-emissions and non-wood-based. We have to balance R&D with a price point, and I think we have a good balance.

“Traditional materials are becoming more expensive, and non-traditional ones are becoming more accessible. As a manufacturer, we are sensitive to green products and the reality of construction on certain scales, and hopefully that can converge with what we do as much as possible.”

The company’s customers are primarily located in a 100-mile radius of its headquarters in Elkhart, Ind. It operates two manufacturing facilities in Elkhart and one in Goshen, Ind. Some of its processes are heavily automated, while others still require specific expertise. Hardwood doors, for example, are built by hand, and then passed through an automated finishing line.  

Natural variations in wood products occur often, which still requires a watchful human to maintain a consistent product. When recruiting employees, Helmuth says, Genesis looks for people with a “high level of productivity and aptitude.”

The company often hires people with minimal background in the industry  for entry-level positions and trains them on-the-job, allowing them to move up into more skilled positions. “We have done this with salespersons, machine operators and even managers with success,” he notes.