Rhinelander Brewing Company brewing up success in ‘Hodag’ country
Home renovation show brings homeowners, contractors together
June 1, 2026
WISCONSIN – Over the last four decades, Director of Human Resources Lisa Pichotta said Nicolet Plastics has helped shape both customers’ products and the injection molding industry across the Badger State – one relationship at a time.
“Early on, there was a lot of emphasis on quick-response manufacturing,” she said. “It was really about being fast, fluid and flexible – how are we utilizing our teams and working together to solve customer problems and come up with real, repeatable solutions moving forward?”
With a plant in Mountain and another in Jackson, as well as a third relief facility in Ripon, Business Development Leader Bryce Huggins said Nicolet Plastics specializes in the custom production of parts and products for a “wide variety of industries.”
“The general process is a client will come to us with a part that needs to be manufactured, [maybe some] 2D or 3D drawings, and we will turn that around into a finished product for them,” he said.
Injection molding, per nicoletplastics.com, is a manufacturing process in which “molten plastic” is injected into a mold before being cooled and “solidified to create a finished product.”
The website further states that injection molding is “widely used” to mass-produce complex parts “with high precision and consistency.”
However, because it’s a popular process, Huggins said the industry can be incredibly competitive – making Nicolet’s long-term customer relationships an invaluable asset of the business.
“We really try to lean into our partnerships,” he said. “[Reflecting on] our 40th anniversary, we have a lot of really strong relationships with our customers who have stuck with us.”
Huggins said those relationships were earned through a continuous focus on providing the solutions customers seek from Nicolet.
“There are a lot of players in this space,” he said, “so we’re really, really proud of the relationships and service we’ve been able to extend to our clients and maintain for 40 years.”
Investment = reliability
In addition to injection molding, Huggins said Nicolet provides a number of “auxiliary services – like assembly, pad printing, heat-staking of inserts” – that complement its core competency.
“A large differentiator for us is we really focus on a lot of engineered components,” he said. “We can assist with material selection as well, and have expertise in a lot of different engineering areas. So, we view ourselves almost [as] an ‘engineering extension’ to the customer. We can essentially be their plastics expert.”
Though today Nicolet emphasizes engineered components and technical expertise, Pichotta said the company got its start in the 1980s as a tool-maker.
“[We] evolved into an injection molder,” she said, “[but] our goal is to be a people-first organization.”
Having been at Nicolet for the last decade, Pichotta said she was drawn to work for the company because of its “emphasis on team and developing from within.”
“That part of our foundation is still very active today, both in Mountain and Jackson,” she said. “No matter what the conditions are financially or in the markets around us, we have continued to invest in our team.”
Nicolet’s workforce culture, Pichotta said, also helped the company not only “weather” the COVID-19 pandemic but step up and serve throughout it.
“When a lot of companies slowed down and shut down, we actually went from having two shifts in Jackson to having three shifts,” she said. “Both of our plants were running 24/7 to support the production of PPE products.”
Pichotta said Nicolet was recently recognized by Plastics News – an organization founded to report on developments affecting the North American plastic industry – ranking No. 7 on its list of “Best Places to Work in Plastics… across the U.S. and beyond.”
“Continuing to recognize our people [and] grow [their] talent so we can be the experts in the field, I think, directly ties into our relationships with our customers,” she said. “We don’t have high turnover, and we have a lot of very talented people in our organization [who] our customers have come to rely on.”
Pichotta said its employees’ dedication is a symptom of Nicolet’s investment in systemic transparency.
“There’s a lot of care among our team members, as well as pride in the products we’re putting out,” she said.
Through efforts like their “Nicolet News Meetings,” Pichotta said staff are shown where their products end up, how they’ve positively affected their customers and what’s coming next.
“We’re always sharing what we’re working on [and] what’s coming down the pipes,” she said. “They have that knowledge of the products they’re producing, the impact the products have and what they’re going into that our customers [rely on].”
Future ‘growth plans’
With 40th anniversary celebrations planned at both its Mountain and Jackson locations, Huggins said Nicolet is reflecting on the past while simultaneously looking to the future – with recent investments made across its facilities, including:
- Two new 360-ton presses in Jackson, expanding its capabilities to include two-shot molding
- One new 500-ton press and molding storage in Mountain
- A new overhead crane system and additional automation in Jackson
Pichotta said the two facilities are built to have different capabilities – providing Nicolet the flexibility needed to serve its customers.
“The Jackson plant [makes a] more of a high-volume, low-mix of products, and Mountain [makes a] more low-volume, high-mix [of products],” she said. “That’s by design.”
Unique to the Mountain location, Pichotta said Nicolet has a full-service tooling room on-site, which includes Mantle 3D technology – “a 3D metal printer.”
“When we brought it on board, I believe we were one of two or three [companies] in the country [with] that technology,” she said.
Nicolet’s Ripon facility, Pichotta said, is currently brought online to help with any overflow production – but is also on standby as the company anticipates needing a third, full-time facility in the near future.
“When we hit our capacity at our two plants, we do have a third facility,” she said. “Right now, we’re using that facility more for storage, but it is set up and ready for production as we continue to meet our growth plans.”
For those wanting to celebrate not only the company’s growth but its future as well, Pichotta said Nicolet is set to host open house events June 18 in Jackson and June 25 in Mountain.
For more information, visit Nicolet Plastics’ aforementioned website.
