The names might be different but there's no shortage of gags and good-humoured ribbing when mates Trevor Dowd, Brad Stacey and Gerard Farley get together.

However, this is one friendship that's no act. The trio have been best mates since striking up a close relationship back in the 1990s at their former workplace, the Warrnambool Co-Op.

They've been together through marriages, the arrival of children, family tragedies and annual family holidays. The trio still catch up at least once a fortnight and it's not unusual for them to chat daily on the phone.

Their bond, like many formed among work colleagues during the half century of operation by the iconic business, will be celebrated with a reunion of former employees next week.

More than 100 one-time staff are expected for the event at Rafferty's Tavern on Saturday, March 13. For many it will be their first meeting since the Co-Op shut its doors in 2007 in a move that sent shockwaves through the community.

The reunion was originally scheduled for last March to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Co-Op's inception in 1960, however, COVID-19 forced organisers to postpone the event.

Mr Dowd, whose grandfather Noel Garner was a Co-Op founding director, got his start in the business as a 17-year-old in 1983 and spent the next 20 years there working in the animal health area.

"It tended to be a fairly close little community of workers. There wasn't a big staff turnover," he reflected. "It was more like a family."

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Brad Stacey didn't know a soul when he and his soon-to-be wife Claire arrived in Warrnambool from the Wimmera town of Goroke in 1996.

He got a part-time job pumping petrol at the Co-Op but when he moved across to the plumbing department shortly after, everything changed.

"I met Trev and he introduced me to everyone around Warrnambool," he said.

When Mr Farley joined the Co-Op in 1997 as a 20-year-old in the milking machine department, the trio was complete. His work was predominantly in the field but got to know the other two when he would come into the store for parts.

"It was just the best place to work," said Mr Farley, who now works in maintenance at the Warrnambool Racing Club. He spent 10 years at the Co-Op where an active social club ensured that wives and children also became firm friends.

Camping and water-skiing summer holidays at Lake Bolac and more recently Lake Charlegrark have long been a tradition for the three families, as well as AFL grand final days at Mr Stacey's shed, also known as the Long Room.

At one time the Farleys and Staceys lived within a block of each other at Allansford. Each family has two young adult children, with several sharing sporting interests.

Mr Dowd and Mr Stacey both work as Western District reps in the agribusiness field, often taking advantage of the long drives for phone catch-ups.

"We still talk every day between the three of us," Mr Farley said.

"We're best friends and we can say anything to each other. It's a bit like the Three Stooges."

Reunion organising committee member Ken Parsons said the dinner event was open to former Co-Op and Western Herd Improvement employees and would feature photographic and memorabilia displays including uniforms, newspaper clippings, newsletters and annual reports.

Long-serving former CEO and a Co-Op founder Bill Quinlan, who is writing a book about the organisation's changing fortunes, will be among the night's guest speakers. Others will represent the various departments including Robert Lane, Roger Henderson, Paul Quinlan, Trevor Dowd and Marlene O'Brien.

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