A MILKSHAKE shop is celebrating a successful five years in business after expanding its product range ten-fold since opening at Bolton’s Crompton Place Shopping Centre.

Khaliq Rehman has increased the range of milkshakes he offers to 150 since opening Scoopalicious at the shopping centre in July 2010.

It's been an exciting journey for dad-of-three Khaliq, who opened the store after realising there was a potential market in the milkshakes he was making as treats for his children. Now he's ready to expand the business with even more products and possibly opening a second branch.

Before opening the shop Khaliq, aged 36, spent time working in his home country of Pakistan, followed by stints in Greece and Denmark.

He is now settled with his wife and family in Bury and said he has found his true calling behind the counter.

“This is the final stop now, this is home,” said Khaliq. “I’ve been about a bit but this is where my family is now and I’ve got a lot of family support here too. My two cousins have helped me so much with the business and it’s going really well so I’m really happy here.”

Scoopalicious opened its doors in June 2010 and its range of milkshakes, ice creams and smoothies have proved a big hit with Crompton Place shoppers.

Khaliq said: “We have 150 flavours of milkshakes available – all the different chocolate bars like Dime, Crunchie, Wispa, Rolo – and ten different flavours of ice cream as well as ten different fruits for the smoothies – anything from pineapple to mango or blueberry.

“Customers can come in and pick their flavour, or their chocolate bar or whatever and it all goes in the blender for them. We’ve started doing snow cones as well. The favourite ones of those so far are strawberry, bubble gum and cola flavours but they’re going really well and should be popular for the summer.”

Alongside the sweet treats available, Scoopalicious also caters for Crompton Place’s more health conscious clientele with a range of fruit smoothies and protein shakes.

Looking ahead to the next five years, Khaliq hopes to keep expanding his business and hopes to open a second branch elsewhere in Greater Manchester.

He said: “We’re always thinking of something new and changing the menu. We'd like to add more products this year."

Paula Wood, Centre Manager at Crompton Place shopping centre said: "It's wonderful to see a small independent business go from strength to strength.

"Over the last five years Scoopalicious has become a firm favourite with many of our shoppers. We'll be really interested to see what the next five years brings. I'd also like to congratulate Khaliq and his team on their charity fundraising efforts, it's great that they have able to put something back into the local community."

Family firm Scoopalicious are keen to repay their success and as the business has taken off, the team have been constantly collecting money for children’s charities. With almost £1,000 now ready to be given to the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity, the fundraising has clearly been another success.