Bath time a success for Coast pair
THE Gold Coast is providing the foundation for one of the country’s leading concrete basin and bath manufacturers.
Concrete Nation is the brainchild of American expatriate Kate Lett and Kiwi Jason Lett.
The pair met in the US while she was studying fashion and he was playing club rugby and working for a builder.
After meeting and starting a family together in Boston, the pair decided they wanted a change and moved to Australia.
“A friend told Jason about this course doing concrete benchtops,” she said.
“I had had enough of the fashion game, the rat race. We had our first daughter and were ready to make a change. That’s when we moved to Australia and started the business (Concrete Nation).”
Mrs Lett said no one was making concrete benchtops and basins at the time in Australia. The pair spied a niche and were soon up and running from a 100sq m shed in Burleigh.
She said they faced challenges early on, including the usual cashflow issues, and also finding the right mix, literally, for the concrete.
“The biggest difference is it has fibreglass in it. It is a lot lighter but a lot stronger than
traditional concrete,” she said.
“It has been challenging first off finding suppliers and then getting the mix right.”
She said concrete benchtops had gotten a “bad rap” via builders pouring benchtops in homes only to see them cracking and staining.
“But the way we do it is different, including the mix. We don’t typically pour on-site, everything is made here.”
Recently they decided they needed to pivot more towards the basin side of the operation.
Shipping benchtops was proving a challenge but the pair knew basins were less of a logistical issue.
“We thought this (supplying benchtops) is great. We can supply the Gold Coast, Brisbane and maybe northern NSW but there is a whole world out there. We were getting requests from all over for our products.”
A heavy marketing focus, mostly through Instagram, has led to requests for their products from all over the world, including France. The basins play well on social media due to the wide variety of colours they come in including pink and blue.
Ms Lett said the demand is coming from consumers who want something different in their bathroom and kitchen.
“People want to make a statement in their home. They want something different. They are sick of what their parents had.
For years and years it has been white, basins and bathtubs.”
The business is producing a significant amount of basins per year – up to 4000 – from their premises in Burleigh.
However, it is the baths, which sell for between $4000 and $5000, where the most profit comes from.
The pair recently started exporting to New Zealand and now have a network of 200 retailers.
They are also on the lookout for new markets.
Mr Lett said they are proud of all their work but it is the bespoke projects that give them the most satisfaction.
That includes the so-called “Egg house” in Coolangatta.
They did the benchtops for the kitchen at the futuristic property at Duranbah.
“It starts and curves right around. It was complicated but the end result was wicked,” he said.