Is Genesis Worldwide Preparing to Spin Off Monarch Machine Tool?

Now that corporate-capability literature has been prepared for the new Genesis Worldwide Inc. it's apparent that the metalcutting-machine-tool operation that remains within has turned into a poor stepchild, identity-wise.

Formerly known as Monarch Machine Tool Co., Inc., the corporation shed its money-losing lathe division in Sidney, Ohio, and started putting resources into its Stamco coil-processing-equipment unit, acquiring related (Herr-Voss Industries) and complementary (GFG Corp. roll coating) companies.

      To reflect the changes in the publicly held company and to grab Wall
   Street attention, a name and image change was in order. This summer Monarch
   Machine Tool changed its name.

The new name and corporate logotype are straight out of The Genesis Project introduced to moviegoers by Admiral James T. Kirk in 1982. In one rendition, a sun rises behind the sky-blue planet symbol to present an image that duplicates the closing scenes of Star Trek II. Company president and CEO Rick Clemens describes the logo as representing a new beginning.

And the divisions have been re-named to emphasize the corporate connection. There's

[paragraph] Genesis Worldwide's corporate headquarters in the Kettering Tower in downtown Dayton, Ohio.

[paragraph] GenSystems Inc., the subsidiary created by the combination of Stamco and Herr-Voss, with locations in Callery, Ambridge, and Conway, Pa.; New Bremen, Ohio; Chicago, Ill.; and Gary, Ind.

[paragraph] GenCoat, the former GFG Corp. in Milwaukee, Wis., which includes four divisions for roll coating, coil processing, the Peabody Electrostatics blade coater, and Busch Paper Coating & Laminating. The subsidiary is now completing a new 80,000-sq.ft. plant to be occupied in December.

[paragraph] GenInternational, the overseas sales and service subsidiary in Derby, England.

And then there's the Monarch Machine Tool Division, in what used to be the machining centers division in Cortland, N.Y. In the corporate re-imaging, it never got a "Gen" added to its name, and it's mentioned only once, in passing, in corporate literature packets.

      Observers recall the way Cincinnati Milacron Inc. presented to investors
   its machine tool operations shortly before the division was sold to Unova.

Meanwhile, the new corporate image may be starting to have some positive effect. The New York Stock Exchange this week accepted the company's business plan for meeting the exchange's new listing standards by February 2001.

The plan calls for the company (stock market symbol GWO) to have $50-million in market capitalization by that date. Genesis is halfway there, with 4.3-million shares outstanding and a recent price of $5 3/4. (The price has ranged from 9 1/2 to 4 1/2 over the last year.) The exchange also requires $50-million in shareholder equity ($46.2-million last year).

The post of chairman had been vacant for a number of years, and this week the board selected one of its own, John A. Bertrand, as non-executive chairman of the board. Betrand's been a director since 1993 and has been president of A.O. Smith Corp.'s electric motor division (1998 sales = $480-million).

Genesis Worldwide Inc., Dayton, Ohio. 937-910-9300.