Sentinel Printing Ending Operations in St. Cloud in December

ST. CLOUD -- A book printing company in East St. Cloud will be ending operations here in town by December 1st. Sentinel Printing Company on North Highway 10 has told its employees they are in the process of consolidating with Bang Printing in Brainerd.

Both companies are owned by the parent company CJK group.

Vice President of Marketing Susan Wiercinski says the 46 employees in St. Cloud will be given the option to relocate to the Brainerd facility.

Sentinel and Bang are both book printing companies for various publishers across the country.

Sentinel was bought by Bang in 2015, it operated separately from Bang until 2017 when the two locations began to consolidate.

According to the St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce's website, Sentinel opened in 1854 and is the oldest company in St. Cloud, two years older than St. Cloud itself, which wasn't established until 1856.

Documents from the Stearns History Museum say the Sentinel's roots go back to a weekly newspaper called the Sauk Rapids Frtontiersman, then it changed to the Free Press.  In 1918 the newspaper became the St. Cloud Sentinel.  Thirty years later the newspaper side of the business was sold to the Sauk Rapids Herald, and Sentinel name stayed with the commercial printing shop.