Once focused on pouring driveways, Jon Bell Concrete finds success in fabricating precast panels for outdoor kitchens
In 2008, Jon Bell founded Jon Bell Concrete (JBC) in Cambridge City, Indiana. The company poured sidewalks, patios and driveways. It even built barns. JBC employed three people and was housed in a 5,000-square-foot section of a 60,000-square-foot manufacturing building.
“We weren’t in the precast business at all,” Bell said.
In 2019, Ready to Assemble (RTA) Outdoor Living, headquartered in Greenland, New Hampshire, had a problem. Its precast contractor was struggling with the concrete material needed to manufacture the outdoor kitchens that RTA sold to customers. A business friend, who knew Bell successfully used the same material, introduced him to the folks at RTA. Soon, JBC became RTA’s sole contract manufacturer.
“Everything just exploded from there,” Bell said.
JBC went from work order No. 250 in 2019 to work order No. 8,000 in 2024. Today, the company employs 35 workers and occupies a 60,000-square-foot production building. It also owns a 30,000-square-foot dedicated storage building.
Making the transition
The transition from pouring patios and driveways to manufacturing precast outdoor kitchens wasn’t easy. It required Bell and his employees to develop a precast manufacturing sensibility — a very different mindset from constructing barns and pouring concrete. The changes also would affect the company culture.
In the early days of the partnerships, JBC was fulfilling both construction orders and precast outdoor kitchen manufacturing orders. Switching gears from one type of job to the other was stressful.
And there were other challenges. For one thing, JBC workers had to learn how to produce the precast panels so they were decorative and durable. The solution was to use a glass fiber-reinforced concrete mix that reaches 17,000 psi.
“We make sure the concrete is good and strong because the product is shipping from Cambridge City, Indiana, to all lower 48 states and Canada,” Bell said.
The company also had to learn how to create the finishes and get the formulas for the colors down pat. Currently, six finishes are available with several color selections: stacked stone (gray, brown and white), weathered wood (brown and gray), reclaimed brick (white), plank (charcoal and white), modern (white and gray), and modern stone (white and charcoal). JBC is developing even more options for 2025.
“We learned through trial and error,” Bell said. “There’s been a lot of growing pains — some good times and some bad times.”
Another challenge Bell faced was the need for more space. He was loyal to the community and wanted to remain there. His best option was a 60,000-square-foot building that had been vacant for more than 20 years. He began extensive renovations on this space while the company was still learning how to produce the panels.
Rapid growth was another challenge.
“We went from three employees to 35 in a short amount of time,” Bell said. That takes a lot of getting used to.”
The partnership with RTA continued to develop, and the orders kept coming. Today, outdoor kitchens is the only product JBC manufactures.
“The busier we got, the more challenges appeared,” Bell said. “Honestly, we probably aren’t quite up to speed yet, but I feel like the team we have does a great job of producing a great product. From where we started to where we are now is a feat in and of itself.”
The RTA Process
Here’s how the process works. Customers go to rtaoutdoorliving.com and use the online tools to put together their dream outdoor kitchen. Customers can order anything from a simple 3-foot island that contains a sink and a grill to multiple, larger islands that can house built-in grills (gas or wooden pellet), refrigerators, bars, smokers, fireplaces, storage drawers and cabinets, and even an Italian-made pizza oven.
RTA creates a blueprint of the customer’s order and sends it to them for approval. Once approved, the order is sent to JBC to be manufactured. When it is complete, JBC ships all components of the outdoor kitchen directly to the customer.
Producing the Panels
The precast panels range in thickness from three-quarters of an inch to 1 1/2 inches and are fabricated with cut-outs to accommodate appliances, cabinet doors and storage drawers. There’s no framework. The components are modular for ease of construction.
“There’s nothing in the market like it,” Bell said.
JBC pours the back, sides, front and countertops for each kitchen. The turnaround time from receiving the blueprint to shipping the product typically is three to four weeks.
Since the panels and countertops are decorative, no chips, cracks, pinholes, smudges or imperfections are allowed. And the color must be spot on.
“Everything we do is customer oriented,” Bell said. “We put in a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of care into the finish of the product.”
To address this, Bell created a quality control department and established strict standards as to the mix to use for the structural panels.
The panels not only have to leave the plant in perfect condition, but they also have to arrive intact to each customer’s residence and stay that way during installation. Proper packaging was critical, and JBC spent much time experimenting to discover the best solution to meet this challenge. The panels are shipped in a crate in the order of assembly, so the customer only has to handle each piece once during installation. All appliances, except for the pizza oven, are by Coyote and are shipped by JBC along with the decorative precast.
Assembling the Outdoor Kitchens
Each order also includes the fasteners and a comprehensive assembly guide that details how to put the outdoor kitchen together.
“When it shows up in your driveway, you can have your kitchen put together and be grilling in two hours,” Bell said. “All you need is a drill.”
For customers who aren’t that handy with tools, RTA has a contractor network throughout the U.S. that can put their outdoor kitchen together for them.
As if that weren’t enough, RTA started a YouTube channel that offers advice on uncrating your new outdoor kitchen, how to build it from start to finish and features customer testimonials.
Bragging Rights
In the four years Bell has been fabricating decorative precast outdoor kitchens, he’s created dream outdoor kitchens and had a few brushes with celebrities, such as producing kitchens for Joe and
Melissa Gorga of “Housewives of New Jersey” and actress Jessica Alba’s parents.
He also fabricated the winning home’s outdoor kitchen for Tamara Day’s “Bargain Mansions” show on Magnolia Network (formerly HGTV). This particular episode featured the Barbie Dream House Challenge, with three contestants competing for the best dream house. Bell created custom Barbie Pink countertops for the contest.
That was a feather in our cap,” Bell said. “Six years ago, if someone would have told me that we were going to be building kitchens for people on the Magnolia Network or HGTV, I would have laughed at them. It’s all pretty amazing.”