AVON – A company that has been making educational toys in Maine for more than 35 years has been sold to a Pennsylvania firm and will shut down its factory later this year.

Lauri Enterprises was brought to Franklin County in 1968 by Malcolm Sibulkin and at its peak employed more than 30 workers. The company, which was started by Sibulkin’s mother in 1960 in Massachusetts, makes 165 products for children ages 2 to 8 and is best known for its rubber “Fit-A-Shape” puzzles.

Smethport Specialty, located in Smethport, Pa., bought Lauri in late September, but probably won’t shut down the 18,000-square-foot plant in Avon until summer, said Robert Daggett, vice president of manufacturing for Smethport.

Smethport Specialty, a family owned business founded in 1923, has a 110,000-square-foot plant and 40 employees. It manufactures specialty toys, the best-known of which is the Wooly Willy magnetic drawing set.

There are now 22 Lauri employees, all of whom were offered full-time jobs in Pennsylvania. So far only one has agreed to make the move south, Daggett said, but others will travel to Pennsylvania for a few weeks to train Smethport employees.

Daggett said Smethport was looking to expand and decided to buy Lauri. He said most toy manufacturing is now done in Asia.

He said Lauri Enterprises and Smethport seemed like “a natural fit” because both companies are located in the western mountain regions of their states and both have work forces rooted in their local communities.

“It’s like deja vu when I go up there to Avon and look around,” he said.