Rupa and Matt Clark are expanding their range of spices, sauces and selection of fresh Asian vegetables and cheese from throughout the world at The Masala Mill. Photo: John Thistleton.
Six years after opening an Asian grocery store in Goulburn, it seems the United Nations is reclaiming Matt Clark and his wife, Rupa.
Filing through the doors at The Masala Mill in Goulburn’s main street are people from Thailand, Korea, Nepal, India, the Pacific islands and China, mingling with their fellow Australian and European customers.
Matt met Rupa when he was working in software in Nepal for the UN. Rupa worked voluntarily for non-government organisations helping vulnerable women.
Following their marriage and stint in Thailand and returning to Australia, they opened their first retail venture, focusing on Asian, Indian, Nepali and African food. Since then, Matt and Rupa have added ‘’international’’ to describe their growing grocery offering.
Renovating over the Christmas break, they have doubled the footprint of the store by extending out the back. They have a new point-of-sale system and new fridges for international cheeses including Italian, Greek and Hungarian varieties.
“I love cheese,” Matt said with a hearty laugh. “My first job during school, I worked in an Italian restaurant, in a kitchen with this lovely Italian family in western Sydney.
“They taught me how to cook. I have always had a real love of Italian and Mediterranean food.
“Rupa is a fantastic cook, but tends to stay in her lane with Nepalese or Indian food. Her product knowledge is a key point of difference from supermarkets.
“People come here because they want advice. They can come and ask, ‘How can I cook this?’ or ‘What ingredients do I need?’”
The Masala Mill sources ingredients from 30 countries through a network of 50 suppliers in Sydney, who Matt visits twice weekly driving his three-pallet truck. Leaving at 6 am, he goes to Minto, and clusters of suppliers around Strathfield, Chullora, Homebush, Smithfield, Wetherill Park, Eastern Creek, and St Mary’s. They source fresh goat meat from a Nepalese butcher in Canberra who packages it for sale.
It’s been a steep learning curve for the couple finding what they need to run a successful business. They first came to Goulburn from Wollongong to visit friends who initially hailed from southern India, who said they had to travel to Canberra for their Asian grocery shopping.
“I was feeling a bit jaded just sitting behind a screen cutting code, and the boom-and-bust of the software industry, which is a bit stressful,” said Matt, a former software developer.
Matt and Rupa, who have two sons, Elijah, aged 11, and Joshua, 7, saw an opportunity to try something different and opened their shop a block away from the main street in Sloane Street, near the Goulburn Multicultural Centre. After six months, they were confident enough to move opposite Goulburn Square (Coles, Kmart) in Auburn Street for more foot traffic.
Their variety of spices, sauces and other ingredients caught people’s attention.
“The trend towards people watching My Kitchen Rules and MasterChef has really given them an interest in cooking,” Matt said.
“You find if there are people on those shows that are making something, other people come in the days or weeks afterwards saying, ‘Do you sell this or sell that?’ We try and keep on top of those trends too.”
Expanding their range of products requires caution.
“We walk a fine line in Goulburn between having authentic products, but not too niche, or if they are niche, making sure there is a market here for them,” Matt said.
“So you cannot do a really deep dive into any cuisine, I guess, unless you are really sure there is going to be demand there.
”I think we have found the happy medium between a store which is accessible to everyone, not too niche.”
Matt is fluent in Thai and Nepalese, and his experience with technology, love of innovation and working with systems to do things more efficiently are fine-tuning their retail operation.
“It’s a business we love,” he said. “We like our customers, so I think when you are passionate about something, when you enjoy what you are doing, when you love the people you are spending your days with, it is easy when you are in that space.”
The Masala Mill is located at 318 Auburn Stree, Goulburn. They’re open from 9:30 am until 6 pm Monday to Friday, and from 10 am until 5 pm on Saturday. For more information, head to their website or follow them on Facebook.
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