Rengel Has Been Printing in St. Cloud for 100 Years

ST. CLOUD -- A St. Cloud printing company is marking 100 years in business.

Rengel Printing actually started out as Goedert-Rengel Company and was founded by Andrew Goedert and Jack Rengel in February of 1921.

Their first two locations were on 5th Avenue in downtown St. Cloud including a couple of years in the Searles building. From 1926 through 1950 they were on 8th Avenue South where the Catholic Mission Building is. They were also located where the St. Mary's parking lot is now back when Lake George was much bigger, then moved over St. Germain Street where the library is now, and then finally in their current location where they've been since 1979.

Early on Rengel's primary business was printing labels for St. Cloud Canning Company. Then, 90 percent of their business came from Bankers Systems, which was their main client for 30 years.

Current President Pete Rengel says today they are much more diversified serving hundreds of clients.

So now we're not just printing forms, we're printing business cards, doing mailings, booklets, brochures, magnets, we've added an embellishment machine.  So, we've become so diversified in our product line and in our customers.

Dee and her husband John were the second generation to run the business, with Dee in charge from 1993 through 2004. She says she had to break through a few glass ceilings back in the early days.

At that time there was a printers association an on women were allowed at this printers association and then I got a phone call from one of the members and they said, "Dee we want you to come to the meetings", and I said "no, I'm not allowed", he said, "we took a vote we want you to come".  That was a breakthrough for me.

Today Rengel is being run by the third generation of the family with Pete Rengel as the president and his wife LaRae Rengel the CFO.

It doesn't hit you until one day you are taking it all in and you realize this is a legacy.  When I came in 2004 that was my number one goal to get Rengel Printing to 100 years for Jack, and we did it.

Pete says they are busier than ever right now with the company spread out over four buildings in north St. Cloud. Equipment upgrades have made them more efficient where it used to take 45 minutes to do a job and now they can do that same job in just four minutes.

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They do have some national clients, but a majority of their customers come from central Minnesota.

Coming up this Saturday Rengel Printing is hosting an invite-only celebration for family members, ex-employees, and current employees to mark the company's 100th anniversary.