BUSINESS WRITEUP: Brady’s Fruit

Iconic Palmwoods business, Brady’s Fruit celebrates its 50th birthday this year. Founder, Bob Brady and current owner, Col Pearce, recently took time to reflect on the highs and lows of the past 50 years.

“I had been living in New Zealand following a credit squeeze in Australia and when I came back to Australia with my wife and family, I decided I wanted to start a business for myself,” Bob said.

“When I started looking around, the house itself caught my eye. It was a five bedroom house, raised up on stumps with three roller doors on the front,” he said. 

“It was originally a fruit stall, operating out of the roller doors, it was in a fantastic position with loads of passing traffic and we had four kids, so it was perfect for us.”

Having decided to go into the fruit business, Bob found a mentor in a long time fruiterer in Ocean Street.

“Joe said to me, ‘if you want to do fruit, be at my place at 3am and we will go to Brisbane’,” Bob said. 

“That was the beginning for me. It was a tough trade, with long hours and two early morning trips to the Rocklea Markets in Brisbane each week to buy produce,” said Bob. “As the business grew, that expanded to three. My family pitched in and we all worked hard.”

In 1978, a 15 year old Col Pearce joined the team at Brady’s Fruit and eventually went on to take over the business when Bob retired in September, 2004.

“It’s been a lot of fruit and early hours!” Col said.

Competition from the major supermarkets continually grew, but some of the bigger challenges were posed by bouts of serious flooding.

“1974 was the worst year for flooding, followed by 2011,” said Col. 

“During the floods in 2011 we were the only shop in South East Queensland with potatoes. Via the markets in Brisbane, we were able to secure the last semi trailer load of spuds heading south out of Atherton and it did not take long for the word to get around that we had them!

“A semi trailer load is 24 pallets, it is a huge amount of produce to transport, unload and distribute,” he said.

“The bulk of them went to IGA supermarkets, 6 pallets went to Brisbane, to the guy that organised the delivery, and the rest, we sold from here. The truck driver was worried about how he was going to get them to us, but we cleared out the back so that he could back the truck in.

“People came from everywhere to buy from us. Even if the markets had been able to supply the spuds, no-one could get to Brisbane to buy them. It was crazy.”

Col, his wife Sandra and their team (including their son Brendan, who still works in the family business) have  weathered some challenging times.

“At the peak of COVID we saw people panicking, especially when the big supermarkets could not supply enough fresh produce,” Col said. 

“Earlier this year was also bad but we are fortunate to have the relationship we do with the Rocklea Markets. We have been doing business together for a very long time.

“Although we have shored up our supply chain there is a real squeeze on fresh food because of increased demand and the rural sector is dropping out at an alarming rate. Most people just don’t realise this.

“There are so many pressures on primary producers from spiking freight, fertiliser and wage costs, and labour shortages. Many smaller farms have been consolidated into a handful of growers. The landscape has changed enormously over the decades and not particularly for the better.”

Regular customers of Brady’s Fruit are familiar with the high quality of fresh produce that is the standard. 

“Experience is what tells us if fruit and veggies are going to be any good or not,” said Col. “We eat the food we sell and if it is not flavourful and fresh, I am not interested in selling it.”

With Christmas nearly upon us, locals will soon be able to buy the very best quality new season cherries and mangoes.

“I am always a late starter in stone fruit,” Col explained. “I hold out for the right variety of the best quality. Our regular customers hold out for our 2kg boxes of cherries and mango trays. You can’t go wrong with fresh fruit.”

And Col’s favourite fruit? “Any fruit, as long as it’s good fruit!”