Family-owned plastics manufacturer Nylaplas acquired by Vink UK

Published by

Peter Davison

After 40 years in the industry, Nylaplas has been acquired by Weybridge, Surrey-based Vink UK Limited

One of the UK’s leading independent manufacturers of precision plastic components has been acquired by Europe’s largest distributor of semi-finished plastic products.

Established in 1982, Nylaplas is a second-generation family business specialising in the manufacture of precision plastic components and supply of high-performance polymers.

Headquartered in Nailsea, North Somerset, Nylaplas has been owned and run by James and Andrew Bassett, having been founded by their parents, Peter and Leonora Bassett. The business supplies a blue-chip customer base across a diverse range of highly regulated industries requiring exacting levels of quality, including aerospace, defence, oil and gas, motorsport, healthcare, transport and utilities.

After 40 years in the industry, Nylaplas has been acquired by Weybridge, Surrey-based Vink UK Limited, a subsidiary of Vink Holdings Limited. Vink Holdings operates as a federation of over 100 plastics businesses across 22 European countries and is part of the Plastics Family, which has operations worldwide.

The management team of Nylaplas, headed by managing director Chris Eastman, will remain in place following the transaction, with day-to-day operations remaining unchanged.

The shareholders of Nylaplas were advised throughout the transaction by a team of corporate finance specialists at PKF Francis Clark, comprising Chris Bishop, Matt Willmott and Andrew Killick, while Simon Thomas and Cormac Hayes, of Clarke Willmott, provided legal advice.

Chris Eastman, managing director of Nylaplas, said: “I’m confident that Vink is the right home for Nylaplas. Being part of the larger Vink group further strengthens our position for the future, bringing additional benefits for our customers, suppliers and employees.

"I want to thank all the staff for their dedication and commitment, and our advisors, PKF Francis Clark and Clarke Willmott, for their help in delivering a successful transaction for all.”

Chris Bishop, corporate finance associate director at PKF Francis Clark, added: “We’ve been delighted to be able to support both the family and management team, for whom the transaction is the culmination of many years’ hard work.

“Nylaplas is a great strategic fit for Vink, growing its capabilities in the sector. Importantly, Vink will also be a good home for Nylaplas, with its model of encouraging its businesses to operate independently providing a fantastic opportunity for the team.”

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Simon Thomas, partner and managing director of Clarke Willmott’s commercial division, said: “We are really pleased to be able to assist James and Andrew with their sale, having worked with them and the company providing legal advice across a number of areas to Nylaplas over the last few years.

"We have no doubt the business will go from strength to strength under its new ownership and we wish Chris and the management team well in their next chapter.”

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.