Today, Malik Butchers, is the oldest Halal butchers, in the city of Wolverhampton, West Midlands. It goes without saying that it makes us enormously proud to say this. Whilst others have come, made a quick bag of cash, faltered and gone, Malik Butchers has stood the test of time, ridden every storm, taken every bit of rough with every bit of smooth, and any other cliché you’d like to add, to now stand as the oldest in the city, with the finest reputation, standing head and shoulders above the rest. Our reputation is unsurpassed, with a significant customer base in the West Midlands coming to us for their butchery. Why? Because the quality of what we provide to our communities is consistently second to none and because of this, we now boast regular customers from around the country, including celebrities, and also a burgeoning wholesale trade, supplying butchery to the various businesses in the region and beyond. Today, Malik Butchers is a testament to the hard work, grit and determination of the immigrant soul, desperately wanting to make something of themselves, but the history and origins of Malik Butchers can be traced back to over 60 years ago in East Africa, and is very much an immigrant success story built on blood, sweat and tears.
The journey to what ultimately became Malik Butchers, Deli 64 and The Butchers Kitchen, started in East Africa, where our founder Sardar Ali Malik, a carpenter by trade and construction business owner, decided to follow his hidden passion in food, in particular meat and butchery, and set up “Aziz Butchery” in Nairobi, Kenya (or what was known as the Colony of Kenya and the Kenya Protectorate), in 1958. Back then, the region was a British Colony and part of the British Empire. Following Kenyan Independence in December 1963, there followed a period of mass immigration to the UK, by thousands of Kenyan Asians who were marginalised by the new Kenyan Government. Immigration laws became increasingly draconian. Foreigners could only hold a job until such time that a Kenyan national could be found to replace them, and more and more cities, including Nairobi were demanding government bans on non-Kenyans from owning a shop, trading in municipal markets or own any businesses at all. Thousands of Kenyan Asians, who retained their British passports because of a level of distrust towards the new Kenyan Government, were forced to flee the country because of policies preventing them from making a living. Many businesses closed because the government refused to grant licenses. All of this political uncertainty and a loss of his right to make a living, eventually led to Sardar selling up and leaving Kenya in 1969, in order to seek his fortune and a new life in Great Britain.
Keen to hit the ground running, and make the most of his new life in Great Britain, and the plethora of opportunities available in the motherland of the British Empire, Sardar purchased what are now the current premises of Malik Butchers, in 1970, (back then the premises were specifically designed as a grocery store), for the relatively small amount of £2,200. This may not sound like much, but inflation adjusted, this amount equates to approximately £30,000 as of October 2022. Compared to the current cost of Real Estate in the UK, this amount represents an absolute bargain, and becomes the springboard to what ultimately becomes Malik Butchers. Between 1970 and 1973, Sardar and his 3 sons-in-law, during a time of what can only be described as a sustained, non-stop period of late nights and long hours, work incredibly hard to provide the slowly growing Muslim community of Wolverhampton, with one of its first Halal butchery services.
Having helped his sons-in law to establish themselves, and keen to take a step back from the day to day running of the grocery store, and return to his first love of carpentry, Sardar decides in 1974, to sell the business to his son-in-law, Wali Muhammed Malik, for £4,500, which in 2022, equates to almost £40,000 after adjusting for inflation. Following the departure of the two remaining sons-in-law who concentrate on their own ventures, Wali now assumes total control, and so begins the association of the name Malik, with the city of Wolverhampton, as Wali changes the name of the business to “Malik Stores”. For the remainder of the 70’s and throughout the entirety of the 80’s, Wali scales the business to new and unprecedented levels, as a Halal Butchers, Grocery Store and Convenience Store. The business is now effectively 3 businesses in one, and enjoys a very healthy turnover and year on year increases in profitability. Throughout this entire period, the business was open 365 days a year. Life is so good for the Malik family that in 1992, with the assistance of his eldest son Rehan Malik, Wali decides to add an extension to the premises, effectively increasing capacity to cater for the increase in demand.
Up to the late 90’s, the business goes from strength to strength, and not only caters to the local Muslim community in Wolverhampton, but also the influx of Muslim students at the local university, and the Muslim healthcare workers at New Cross Hospital. Business is booming, and life is good until the late 90’s when a brand-new major supermarket opens up within a stone’s throw of the shop, hitting business revenues hard almost instantly. Unable to compete with the massive buying power of one of the UK’s largest supermarket chains, and with its convenience store model suffering badly, the decision was taken in 2001, to transition the shop to being a specialist halal butchers, serving the local and wider community faithfully, diligently and without compromise as it had done for the previous 31 years. With the business returning to Sardar’s hidden passion of meat and butchery, Malik Butchers sets about developing an enviable reputation for quality and consistency throughout the Midlands, for its Desi cuts, and the growing Muslim population in the region, understandably flocks to its doors. Wali decides in 2009 that he’s earned his retirement, and the time is right to take life at a slower pace. He sets about handing over the “keys to the kingdom” to the next generation, and his second eldest son, Adnaan Malik dutifully obliges and takes over the reins of Malik Butchers. With his youthful exuberance, drive, ambition and close contacts within the city and beyond, Adnaan very quickly identifies the wholesale trade,
supplying butchery to the various local businesses, takeaways and restaurants, as a remarkably lucrative way of increasing revenue and achieving sustained and healthy levels of profitability. It is at this point that Adnaan starts to immerse himself in his own passion with food and the food industry, bingeing on the plethora of iconic food shows from around the world, that are now being aired on British TV. Shows such as “Man vs Food, “Anthony Bourdain”, “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives”, and “Masterchef” being his particular favourites. Unbeknownst to anyone, and without realising it himself, a new era at Malik Butchers commences…the era of youth and the era of British born Muslims, taking the business to new levels and directions that were never contemplated before. It’s here, that the seeds were first sown to transition the business from a bog-standard Halal Asian butchery, where the owner happens to be your father’s best mate, supplying only traditional curry cuts to all of the various Asian households in the area, to a business that slowly starts paying more attention to the fact that young British Muslims of today, are interested in much more than just sitting down to a Chicken Karahi and Chapati. Adnaan quickly realises that the ease in which young people are now able to travel around the world, experience global cuisines and try to recreate these dishes back in the UK, means that Malik Butchers had to start looking forward and stay at least one step ahead of the curve.
Moving into the 2010’s, and with Malik Butchers going from strength to strength in supplying its Halal butchery to the burgeoning Asian population in the Midlands, both to the consumer and on a wholesale basis, simultaneously, Adnaan is now slowly conducting serious levels of Research & Development, into eventually transitioning Malik Butchers from a traditional Halal Asian Butchers, to a new and undiscovered market of Halal butchery…that of the western style Artisan butcher. Adnaan was very quick to realise and appreciate that young British Muslims wanted something more than what they’d grown up on in their family homes. The taste buds and desires of young British Muslims are now significantly different, and far more refined in comparison to what they were when they were younger and growing up in their parent’s homes. Young British Muslims want the Halal versions of what their work colleagues, and gym buddies ate. Their integration into British society and the British way of life now means that they also want a British style Sunday Roast Dinner with all of the trimmings, gravy, the lot! The young, professional British Muslim now loves a Smash Burger, or foot long Hot Dog, or a Pastrami on Rye sandwich just as much as their western peers. However, knowing that this transition would take time, Adnaan decided to take the sensible route for the time being, and continue with its highly successful business model of serving the Asian community with Desi cuts, whilst simultaneously putting in serious research hours into the future development of the business, and keeping one eye on the future. With Adnaan’s growing passion as a chef and foodie, Step 1 of this eventual transition led to the launch of “The Butchers Kitchen” in 2018; a pop-up street-food enterprise right at the front of the shop. Specialising in “urban flavour fusion” with classics like “Sloppy Joe” and “Philly Cheesesteak” being dished up. The Butchers Kitchen became an overnight success, and a massive late-night draw for the young crowd in the city.
Fast forward to 2020, and following a complete renovation of the premises, costing approximately £150,000, Malik Butchers reopens with a great deal of fanfare, and a completely new, fresh look and feel, finally reflecting and befitting its western style, artisan approach to Halal butchery. Adnaan’s dreams were finally being realised, and products such as Saddle of Lamb, Tomahawk Steaks and Côte de Beouf, were now being offered to the modern, young, professional British Muslim, who now actively sought out different global cuisines and are significantly more adventurous when it comes to food than his/her predecessors. Furthermore, western reverts now had somewhere, where they could buy the cuts of meat that they had grown up on and loved, but had to give up when converting to Islam, due to a lack of availability of these cuts. No longer did any Muslim have to miss out due to religious barriers. Alongside the butchers, both “Deli 64” and “The Butchers Kitchen”
are now housed in the same premises, with Deli 64 offering up such mouth-watering delights as Wagyu Pastrami Toastie, Korean Beef Toastie and the breakfast classic “Sausage and Egg Sarnie”.The resilience of the business, strengthened by over 60 years of grit and determination meant that Malik Butchers, Deli 64 and The Butchers Kitchen were able to ride the storm of Covid-19, although with difficulty at times! With Covid now under control, early in 2022, the savvy, forward thinking businessman in Adnaan, decided that the time was now right to launch a new website, along with the launch of a brand new mail ordering service, where you can now order your Aberdeen Angus Steaks, your USDA Prime Sirloin, your Wagyu Steaks, your Saddle of Lamb, your artisan Homemade Sausages, and of course, not forgetting your classic “Curry Cuts” for fast, next day home delivery should you wish, ensuring that you receive your order in as fresh a condition as possible.
Fast forward to 2020, and following a complete renovation of the premises, costing approximately £150,000, Malik Butchers reopens with a great deal of fanfare, and a completely new, fresh look and feel, finally reflecting and befitting its western style, artisan approach to Halal butchery. Adnaan’s dreams were finally being realised, and products such as Saddle of Lamb, Tomahawk Steaks and Côte de Beouf, were now being offered to the modern, young, professional British Muslim, who now actively sought out different global cuisines and are significantly more adventurous when it comes to food than his/her predecessors. Furthermore, western reverts now had somewhere, where they could buy the cuts of meat that they had grown up on and loved, but had to give up when converting to Islam, due to a lack of availability of these cuts. No longer did any Muslim have to miss out due to religious barriers. Alongside the butchers, both “Deli 64” and “The Butchers Kitchen”
A family run business, with more than 60 years of history, starting in East Africa, and now continuing its proud story in Wolverhampton, UK, since 1970, where it is now the city’s oldest specialist Halal butcher.
