For Adnaan and Manny Malik, their dream business all began from their childhood bedroom.
Before you ask, nope, they weren’t filming YouTube clips and putting them online. They were dreaming of how they would become millionaires – and what they needed to do to get there.
Fast forward to 2025, that same bedroom that Adnaan and Manny plotted their futures is now their office for their business, Malik Butchers.
Originally run by their father, they took over the business in 2009 after spending their childhoods waking up to the smell of smoke and meat wafting through their home.
Adnaan told: ‘There was always a buzz of activity like a real community hub – it was a very wholesome place to grow up in.’
The business was started by their grandad in Kenya before political uncertainty eventually made him relocate to Wolverhampton.
He worked in the shop for many years before selling it to his son-in-law, Wali Muhammed Malik – the brothers’ father.
Their dad was an incredibly hard worker who never had a holiday, rarely ate dinner with his family or go out with friends.
Adnaan said: ‘From the moment I remember my father, he was consistently in the shop.
‘His life was to make sure everything was sorted – we’ve got money and the kids are being fed.
‘It was one of those things where I was thinking, well, everyone else’s dad finishes work at 6pm but mine doesn’t.
‘But now, looking back at it, I’m glad it was the way it was and I appreciate the hustle of the man.
As the two youngest brothers, they have revolutionised their father’s traditional halal butchers into a modern success that has gained mass popularity with all communities, not just Muslim customers.
he toughest time for the business was in the 1990s as more supermarkets began opening and customers dwindled – they couldn’t be stuck in their own ways for much longer.
The big shift for the business was from a retail-focused shop to being more wholesale focused for meat.
In 2009, their father, who needed to retire, reluctantly handed over control to Adnaan.
Adnaan never saw a future of being happy as a butcher because, growing up, he always saw the work as a chore and despised the meat industry and everything it stood for.
He added he used to be embarrassed about halal butchers when seeing the British counterparts.
The business had a good run but it was ‘stagnant with the usual rough-and-ready, cheap and troublesome customers,’ said Adnaan who describes that time as letting him have an easy existence.
Manny said: ‘With halal butchery, it’s well known for being an unpleasant experience in store.
‘Going into a butcher shop it would be smelly, you’d have flies and it wouldn’t be particularly hygienic.
‘The choice and selection wouldn’t be there either.’
One big influence for him changing the ways of halal butchery was satellite TV, specifically the sitcom Only Fools and Horses.
‘The way Del Boy would eat his full English in the cafe made me think I want to eat that because he made it look so good.
‘So me and Manny used to recreate a full English with fish fingers, waffles and sometimes even kebab.
‘We also used to put Coca-Cola in coffee mugs and pretend it was black coffee.’
Growing up and not being able to eat something that everyone else was because it wasn’t halal made the brothers feel like outsiders.
Adnaan then had a eureka moment – why not make chicken and beef sausages, lamb ham and beef bacon all within the family’s butcher shop?
As the brothers are Muslim, this means they and many of their customers aren’t allowed to eat pork. So Adnaan and Manny began making halal-friendly versions of the food they saw on Only Fools and Horses.
Adnaan’s ideas didn’t stop there. He wanted the butchers to focus on high-quality, premium meats and a deli selling sandwiches, toasties, burgers and more.
Manny remembers saying: ‘It sounds incredible. But we’re in Wolverhampton so who is going come to your shop to buy a sandwich?’
Adnaan was determined, saying it was either this crazy idea or leaving the business completely.
So they went for it. On the 50th anniversary of the shop in 2020, they closed the shop temporarily and renovated it.
When they reopened, they started using social media to make tongue-in-cheek sketches teaching people about halal food.
They’ve said it’s helped them attract customers to non-Muslim customers while dispelling people’s fears and misunderstandings of halal butchers.
Their father still pops in every day, like clockwork, and still hasn’t fully let go of the business.
In the corner of the shop, there is ‘Abu’s chair’ where he will come and sit for hours at a time.
Adnaan described him as ‘an old-school immigrant father who’s emotionless but he does the little things to show he’s proud.’
Although their father doesn’t eat their sausages as he associates them with being non-halal, he will stand there telling customers how brilliant they are.
Their ‘alpha, aggressive’ mum is also an inspiration to them as she would be able to cook up something from nothing. They even sell a chutney named after her in the shop.
Amidst all the swearing and bickering, the brothers work well together, leading to their success.
‘We’re making an old, stinky, smelly sector sexy,’ said Adnaan.
But what they are also doing is changing the stereotypes about Muslims during a time of much conflict.
‘What’s a better way to make peace with people than with a sausage sandwich or a bacon bap?’, Adnaan said.
