City Larder

Robbie & Rebecca ‘Bec’ Bell

Known best for their crowd pleaser ‘Free Range Chicken Pate’. City Larder are a Melbourne based Charcuterie producer and Fine Food Distributor.

If you’ve been served a fancy pate at the Aussie Open or at a Taylor Swift concert it’s more than likely you’ve been served City Larder’s delicious Free Range Chicken Pate. Their pate’s and terrines have been known to convert Vegetarians and are an essential item on any food lover’s charcuterie/cheese board. 

Husband and wife duo behind City Larder are Brits; TikTok famous Chef Robbie Bell who has cooked in Michelin star restaurants before landing at the Rockpool in Sydney and front of house extraordinaire Rebecca Bell that provides white linen customer service to their wholesale operations. 

Never ones to sit still, City Larder are dabbling in producing their own line of food products that include; Pates, Terrines, Rillettes, Pickles, Sauces, Cooked Meats with more product lines to follow sold through their website, wholesale and food service customers. They’re also distributing and ranging other like minded delicious products making City Larder’s catalogue of fine foods one that your favourite local grocer or deli most probably orders from. 

What makes Martin & Martin different from other advisors or accountants you have worked with previously?

We get way more than just a tax return from Martin & Martin. They’re not just there to crunch numbers, do your BAS and lodge your tax return. When we engage with Martin & Martin they help us understand where we’re at and help us make better decisions. Decisions that consider our personal situations, our goals, our business stage, the business history we’ve had, the momentum we have, our appetite for growth and risk. They’re friendly, good banter – they’re personable and I never feel like I’m asking a silly question. We’re foodies at heart (and in training) so having the support of the financial accountability is incredibly reassuring. We love the honest, truthful feedback.

How do you describe your relationship with Martin & Martin?

Nikki is the sensible one that keeps things on the straight and narrow, offset by Andrew’s looser style of banter. He will always give an opinion. It does help that there is that shared love of food between us. Sometimes things might not make obvious financial sense but they can appreciate that we might want to have a go anyway – with an itch that we want to scratch. Besides, foodie people are always better people 🙂

What have Martin & Martin helped with?

They helped us evolve from a Sole Trader structure to a family trust with the  in’s and outs that come with changing things up, managing liabilities, assets etc. They’ve also helped us as we’ve made big jumps and made growth decisions in our business. They’ve been integral to helping us with assessing the feasibility, cash flow forecasting and risk analysis of different options that lie ahead of us. Sometimes it is just good to have someone to bounce ideas off and confirm our thinking.

When have you leaned on Martin & Martin for advice/help in your business?

When we went from the original shop to a full blown purpose built factory – I had acid reflux for weeks from the stress, and being a food lover this was very problematic. It was a huge project that was going to cost a lot but also potentially have good returns going from a 150 square metre to a 1,300 square metre premises. The analysis and scenario planning that Martin & Martin helped us map out was a huge help during that stressful period of ‘what if’s’. 

Sometimes I feel like we don’t really have a clue what we’re doing – but what we do love is good food (great ingredients) and great food products and we let that lead the way. We’re passionate about the food industry, before we were passionate about restaurants, now we’re passionate about food retail and food service. We’re professional, we’re incredibly open to feedback, we love working with great insightful people and advisors, we’re risk takers, we are ambitious and we try to be the best in our field. Constantly rolling the dice and trying new things – we certainly keep Martin & Martin on their toes.