A blossoming Lexington firm, Bristol Group, is one of only a handful of companies in the nation that combines design work and construction with the manufacture of precast concrete panels and other components in its own plant.
Precast concrete panels are popular in the construction trades because of their versatility. Precast concrete is moldable into many shapes using rubber form liners that produce beautiful products found in buildings and other structures across Kentucky and the nation.
“Our clients are responding favorably to the value they see when our established design-build capabilities are coupled with the speed and quality of precast concrete systems manufactured in our PCI [Precast Concrete Institute]-certified plant,” said Todd Ball, Bristol Group’s founder and president.
Ball, a mechanical and civil engineer, created Bristol Group in the late 1990s. The company has 72 employees. Over the past four years, Ball said Bristol had annual revenue growth of 69 percent and total employment growth of 67 percent.
“Our team is ecstatic about this progress,” said Ball. “Conservatively, we’re expecting revenue to grow an additional 50 percent over the next three to five years, and employment growth should follow.”
Today, Ball’s firm has fully embraced precast structural and engineered concrete systems as a smart solution for its clients.
The company has two branches. One is a design-build business.
“We take a client’s ideas and put them on paper. Architects draw up the plans. We do industrial, commercial, hospitality, hotels, office buildings,” said Erik Dunnigan, vice president of business development for Bristol.
Bristol’s work can be found throughout the region. In Lexington, for example, it is currently redesigning and reconfiguring the former Turfland Mall. Crews are demolishing part of the property to separate viable remaining businesses like Staples and The Home Depot from the rest of the site. The company will build back a new clinical building for UK HealthCare. Bristol did the design and will use precast concrete wall panels as the main component.
If it doesn’t win the job of designing and constructing a project, Bristol can subcontract. “We have our own crews available to do site and foundation work. We have concrete crews and steel rigging crews,” said Dunnigan. “We perform a lot of our own work.”
The second branch of the company involves the manufacturing of precast and pre-stressed concrete components such as architectural and structural wall panels, precast sound walls, precast columns and much more.
Historically, contractors would pour concrete into panel forms on site and then, when ready, tilt the finished pieces up into place. A bricklayer might add bricks to the walls, one at a time.
The plant where Bristol’s precast panels are made is off Old Frankfort Pike, next door to the Lexington Humane Society.
“Basically, we can stage an entire building out of this manufacturing facility,” said Dunnigan. “If we’re the contractor, we’ll put the components up ourselves or if we’re supplying to another contractor, drop them off at the job site.” The tallest concrete panel Bristol manufactures is about 48 feet, or several stories high.
Precast concrete has its advantages. Construction moves faster, because panels are produced at the plant while site preparations like grading and building foundations are underway. Concrete panels are tough, withstanding weather, impact and fire. They’re also energy efficient, especially when a layer of insulation is added to the wall during manufacturing.
Aesthetics are taken into account. The exterior side can display a variety of textures, colors and finishes, such as a layer of real brick material cast right into the panel.
Bristol is working at Woodford Reserve Distillery near Versailles, Ky., where the original buildings are stacked stone structures, laid one stone at a time with mortar joints. The company wanted to duplicate the historic structures but needed them to be more operationally efficient with better insulation and less air flow through them.
“We’re manufacturing panels that look just like the original work,” said Dunnigan.
And then there’s cost. Dunnigan said precast concrete is as cheap as pouring on site. “There’s no premium cost with this method, but you get the speed element,” he said.
Since Bristol manufactures its own panels indoors in dry, temperature-controlled conditions, work at building sites doesn’t have to halt because weather conditions won’t allow concrete to be poured and set that day.
“This past winter, we had snow, ice and zero degrees, and normally construction stops,” said Dunnigan. “You can’t pour concrete outside, but we never missed a day, because we manufactured panels in a controlled environment.”
Now with good weather, panels manu-factured during the winter are being installed to meet construction deadlines. Dunnigan cited a six-story hotel Bristol constructed. Panel installation began in June, and the building was fully under roof by December.
In its commercial and industrial construction, several factors seem to be driving business growth for Bristol — versatility, quality and durability of its products, and the speed with which it constructs buildings and aesthetics.