Sarasota family office acquires Ohio plastics manufacturer

A Sarasota family office has acquired a plastics manufacturing company based in Ada, Ohio. Nickolas Asset Management purchased Associated Plastics Corp. and plans to upgrade the systems in place at the 150,000-square-foot manufacturing and warehouse campus. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Included in the acquisition were the Associated Plastics Corp. campus, molding and production equipment and infrastructure to operate the large-scale manufacturing facility. The company, in business since 1977, makes products for the toy, horticulture, automotive, electrical, food processing, electronics and sports industries.

With the acquisition of the Ohio company, Nickolas Asset Management now has five manufacturing facilities and four distribution centers in the Buckeye State, totaling more than 1 million square feet in the region. It selected the plastics manufacturer, which provides injection molding services, in part due to the structural advantages of its location, which include a skilled manufacturing workforce, heavy-lift capability, water access, power and logistics connectivity.

“We invest in asset- and infrastructure-heavy manufacturing — real facilities, equipment, power, water and people — and we bring the capital required to upgrade asset bases that are simply aged out, so these businesses can operate at the level the market now demands,” Nickolas Reinhart, founder of Nickolas Asset Management, says in the statement.

At Associated Plastics Corporation, Nickolas Asset Management plans to invest in automation and AI-enabled manufacturing systems across production, quality, maintenance and logistics. At the same time, the firm will make targeted capital investments to modernize facilities and equipment, according to a statement, to improve safety, consistency and throughput while supporting skilled manufacturing jobs.

Image via associatedplasticscorp.com

"Our role is to strengthen the operation, not change its identity," Reinhart says in the statement. "We bring leadership, systems, execution capability and capital so manufacturing teams can stay focused on running the business while we elevate the platform."

Nickolas Asset Management COO Joe Klein led the acquisition, which marks the family office’s second transaction of 2026. In February, it acquired a 120,000-square-foot plastic scrap recycling plant in North Carolina. 

Before moving to Sarasota in 2021, Nickolas Asset Management was based in Findlay, Ohio, the Business Observer previously reported. Built on permanent capital and a long-term ownership philosophy, the firm partners with management teams to strengthen, modernize and scale companies through a shared services platform that includes HR, engineering, finance, marketing, technology and automation. Currently, Nickolas Asset Management manages more than $500 million in assets.