A well-known store in Toronto, which over the years became a leading specialty retailer for shorter men, is set to close within six to eight weeks after nearly a century of operation in the city.

Brown's Menswear, in confirming the pending closure, announced that it will immediately commence a store-wide liquidation sale.

Jonathan Ordon, president of Danbury Global, the firm that is conducting the liquidation sale, said the decision to close the store follows the death of Lou Brown, son of the store's founder, in December 2017.

In addition to Lou Brown and his children, five full-time employees work at Brown's Menswear. They include four sales staff and a tailor.

One of Brown's children, Pia Brown, said she and her three siblings started helping out around the store as teenagers and it was a "fantastic" experience.

"I really feel that it's an end of an era," she said of the pending closure. "It's sad, but that is my dad's wishes and that's what he wanted."

Pia Brown said her father's reputation as a businessman meant no one wanted to compete with him.

"There is no other store that we know of that was a whole store designated to carry short and extra short. Extra short was really, really special and that was my dad's doing because he came up with the concept of 'short man,'" Pia Brown told CBC Toronto.

In September 2016, Lou Brown's son Robbie, who started the 'short man' concept with him 42 years ago, opened Robbie Brown at Yonge Street to keep the concept going.

The late Lou Brown, son of the founder of Brown's Menswear, passed away in December 2017 after a period of illness. (Pia Brown)

Meanwhile, Ordon said all five employees have chosen to work at the liquidation sale.

"They are all motivated, to honour Lou's memory and the store's image, to assist in the closing sale," Ordon said.

"The staff, they are all saddened. Although there was no blood relation, they were like family to the Browns."

Howard Honickman, president of Honickman & Associates Inc., which is acting for the Brown family, said "Lou always treated people properly."

"There is a strong family feeling among the employees, some of who worked as long as 30 years," he told CBC Toronto.