IT may not be a household name in Newcastle, but chances are that T. Garrett & Sons has had a presence in your kitchen or at your dining table at some stage.
The family business has been marketing fruit and vegetables for 140 years, making it the oldest fresh produce wholesaler in the region.
But after September 17, T. Garrett & Sons will be no more.
"Certainly the end of an era as far as the company ceasing to trade," said Peter Garrett who, with brother John, runs the family business.
T. Garrett & Sons could well be called T.Garrett & Sons & Grandsons & Great Grandsons & Great Great Grandsons. For the Garrett brothers are the fifth generation to operate the business.
"It's been a huge part of our lives here, a huge part of our whole family," said John Garrett, who has been working at the company's stall at Newcastle City Markets at Sandgate for 40 years.
"This business has given everything to us. So there's a lot of history in this place."
The company was established in 1881 by Thomas Garrett, an Irish immigrant who was a farmer before moving from the growing of produce to the selling of it. His outlet was near the present-day Clarendon Hotel in Hunter Street.
In the 1930s, the business moved into the market building in Steel Street, Newcastle West, and then shifted to the complex at Sandgate, when it opened in 1972.
As the business grew, so did a dynasty. Thomas handed the firm onto John, then to Stuart, whose customers included ships' provedores and the local RAAF bases. Stuart Garrett passed the business to his son, John. And then, in the early 1980s, his boys, John and Peter, became involved.
Even since that fifth generation came on board, the industry has "changed dramatically".
"This stand in summer, we'd have stone fruit from floor to ceiling," John Garrett said. "Just pallets and pallets and pallets."
In the early 1980s, the brothers recalled, they could serve more than 200 retail customers a day. And they were just one of about 18 wholesalers in the markets, providing fruit and vegetables to hundreds of retailers and restaurants.
"A lot of fun, a lot more hustle and bustle, more vibrant," said Peter Garrett, as he looked around the quiet cavernous shed on this Tuesday mid-morning.
"That's one of the major changes," said his brother. "In the early days, there'd be buyers walking the floor, haggling for prices.... You'd negotiate a price. These days it's more of an emailed order, it comes through, you fill it, price it and you send it out."
But the greatest change came with the spectacular rise of the large supermarkets. The independent retailers started to disappear, John Garrett said, particularly the smaller suburban fruit shops.
"They weren't selling their business, they were just closing their doors," he recalled. "So we were just watching our customer base shrink."
As the industry has changed, the Garrett brothers have decided it is time for their business to change too.
"It's becoming harder to target the markets we need to get into as a stand-alone business, and by pooling our resources with another business, it's going to allow it to be a lot easier to target the customers we need to target to continue," John Garrett explained.
So T. Garrett & Sons will cease trading and the business will merge with one of their neighbours at the markets, Hunter Fresh Produce.
The new entity will be known as Hunter Fresh Garrett Wholesale.
"We just wanted to keep 'Garrett' in there somewhere," said Peter Garrett of the name.
Hunter Fresh Produce owner Derrick Moodley said his company had specialised in vegetable products while the Garretts were best known for fruit.
"The combination gives us now the whole range in the spectrum of fresh produce," Mr Moodley said.
But so much of the new company's future was connected to the Garretts' history.
"They've been around a long time, so they've got a reputation out there with growers, and our business revolves around your reputation with growers," Mr Moodley said.
Still, as John Garrett admitted, that long tradition had made the decision to wind up the family business very difficult.
"You're ending a family history, a very proud history," he said. "I do get very emotional about it."
"But T. Garrett and Sons is still there in principle, in a way, and in spirit, for sure," said his brother. "And probably always will be."
