diff --git a/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/AbstractPayloadTransformer.java b/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/AbstractPayloadTransformer.java
index 8ddfc6a4b0..2d0ebc501c 100644
--- a/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/AbstractPayloadTransformer.java
+++ b/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/AbstractPayloadTransformer.java
@@ -33,7 +33,8 @@ public abstract class AbstractPayloadTransformer<T, U> implements Transformer {
 			@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
 	        U result = this.transformPayload((T) message.getPayload());
 	        return MessageBuilder.withPayload(result).copyHeaders(message.getHeaders()).build();
-        } catch (Exception e) {
+        }
+		catch (Exception e) {
         	throw new MessagingException(message, "failed to transform message payload", e);
         }
 	}
diff --git a/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/ObjectToStringTransformer.java b/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/ObjectToStringTransformer.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..df3af1de3a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/ObjectToStringTransformer.java
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2002-2008 the original author or authors.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.springframework.integration.transformer;
+
+/**
+ * A simple transformer that creates an outbound payload by invoking the
+ * inbound payload Object's <code>toString()</code> method.
+ * 
+ * @author Mark Fisher
+ * @since 1.0.1
+ */
+public class ObjectToStringTransformer extends AbstractPayloadTransformer<Object, String> {
+
+	@Override
+	protected String transformPayload(Object payload) throws Exception {
+		return payload.toString();
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/org.springframework.integration/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/ObjectToStringTransformerTests.java b/org.springframework.integration/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/ObjectToStringTransformerTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..54e842ce4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/org.springframework.integration/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/ObjectToStringTransformerTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2002-2008 the original author or authors.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.springframework.integration.transformer;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import org.springframework.integration.core.Message;
+import org.springframework.integration.message.GenericMessage;
+import org.springframework.integration.message.StringMessage;
+
+/**
+ * @author Mark Fisher
+ */
+public class ObjectToStringTransformerTests {
+
+	@Test
+	public void stringPayload() {
+		Transformer transformer = new ObjectToStringTransformer();
+		Message<?> result = transformer.transform(new StringMessage("foo"));
+		assertEquals("foo", result.getPayload());
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void objectPayload() {
+		Transformer transformer = new ObjectToStringTransformer();
+		Message<?> result = transformer.transform(new GenericMessage<TestBean>(new TestBean()));
+		assertEquals("test", result.getPayload());
+	}
+
+
+	private static class TestBean {
+
+		public String toString() {
+			return "test";
+		}
+	}
+
+}