By Frank Antosiewicz
CORRESPONDENT
Published: December 16, 2013 5:52 pm ET
Updated: December 16, 2013 5:53 pm ET
Jay Kumar,a co-owner of Universal Plastics Corp., is boosting his family’s custom thermoforming business with the recent acquisition of Mayfield Plastics Inc.
“This expands our market base and adds to our capacity,” noted Kumar, who is now president of both companies, during a telephone interview.
He said that the combination will place it among the largest custom thermoformers in the northeastern United States, and that he plans to invest in the site to foster further growth.
Mayfield, which is based in Sutton, Mass., serves a variety of industries including aerospace, medical device, transportation and electronics. The company formerly was part of S. Ralph Cross and Sons Inc., which started in 1917. Mayfield Plastics opened a new 60,000 square foot facility in 2006. It has 40 employees and about $6 million in sales.
Terms of the deal were not announced. However, the companies said that both Universal and Mayfield will continue to maintain their facilities, brands, employees and procedures.
Kumar said that the combined entities will provide a stronger footprint in custom plastics thermoforming. He said that it will to help provide more technical and financial support for existing customers and in the future will broaden the range of services.
Universal Plastics, based in Holyoke, Mass., was acquired by the father-son team of Sunil and Jay Kumar in 2012. Sunil serves as the chairman at Universal and will be on the board at Mayfield.
UP has been in business for more than 45 years and serves many of the same industries — aerospace, medical device, electronics and transportation — but also does consumer products and food packaging. However, Jay Kumar said that they have different customer lists — Mayfield has more medical, while Universal has more aerospace.
Universal has made such diverse items as kayaks, air ducts for the Space Shuttle, all New York City bus stop signs and bow of submarines used by Navy Seals. The company has 70 employees and operates out of a 100,000 square foot facility. It is ISO 9001 certified and has sales of about $12 million.
Jay Kumar comes from an investment background, having worked at JP Morgan for 10 years as a proprietary trader and most recently as managing principal for PAON LLC. Since the acquisition of Universal Plastics, he’s worked as alongside former president Joe Peters to grow that business.
It marks the second purchase in recent months for the Kumar family. Sunil and his daughter Monica Kumar bought Nylon Corp of America, of Manchester, N.H., in October. | 
