Not many companies make it to 100.
Newcastle manufacturing company Bekaert Australia is among the few to breathe this rarefied air.
The company, which makes wire rope, will mark 100 years of operation with a ceremony on Thursday.
Bekaert began as Australian Wire Rope Works in Newcastle in 1923, through its connections with BHP and four rope manufacturers in Great Britain.
A factory was built in George Street, Mayfield and rope manufacturing began.
In 1933, the company became a BHP subsidiary.
Retired worker Wayne Phillips, 67, knows the ropes of the place more than most.
He worked at the factory for 43 years, retiring in 2016. He started there in 1973 at age 16, after coming to Newcastle from Kempsey.
"My brother was down here working on the railway and there wasn't that much work around up there, so I came down and stayed with him and got the job," he said.
"I walked in off the street and I think I started the following day."
Asked if he ever thought of working somewhere else, he said "no, not really".
In his four decades at the factory, he did "just about everything".
"I started out on the machines, twisting all the wire together. Then I ran the warehouse for quite a few years."
He finished up back on the factory floor, "loading all the trucks and doing all the manual work in the warehouse".
"I preferred that more than the office job."
He believed the company had been around for so long because "we had a good reputation for quality".
"Close proximity to the mines helped. They were one of our biggest customers."
Bekaert Australia manager Stephen Hennessey said the company had faced "global economic challenges and depressions, world war and threats from international competition".
He cited innovation as key to the company's survival. The company also went through mergers and acquisitions across the decades. And up to 15 per cent of products are exported overseas.
Bekaert came through the Great Depression and played a role in the war effort.
The company diverted 90 per cent of its production to supply wire ropes for Australia's defence in World War II.
This included steel wire for submarine nets and harbour booms to defend Sydney Harbour. The company's products were also used for kites to protect ships from dive bombers and cables for underwater mines.
In the post-war boom, the products were used for the Snowy Mountains Scheme and Katoomba Scenic Skyrail, along with mining and construction.
Nowadays, Bekaert Australia provides steel wire ropes for onshore and offshore oil and gas projects, mining and cranes.
The Newcastle factory remains at the same site as a century ago. Its original head office, built in 1926, is still there.
To see more stories and read today's paper download the Newcastle Herald news app here.
