Aykiz Shah at a distribution warehouse with her Salaam Cola. (Image: James Linsell Clark / SWNS)
At just 27, Aykiz Shah launched the brand from her very own kitchen back in October 2023 without any outside funding, investing only £160 on sample cans to kickstart her venture.
By 2024, this savvy mum notched up a whopping €6million turnover in Europe, with £1.6m coming directly from UK sales, pricing her 66p-manufactured cans and bottles at an affordable £1 each.
Taking advantage of her background in recipe development within the drinks industry, Ms Shah devised her unique formula and partnered with a Turkish manufacturer to bring it to life.
In a move prioritising consumer health, Ms Shah crafted her recipe without aspartame, saying: “I wouldn’t put in something that would damage peoples health.”
Hailing from Brentford in west London, the industrious mother-of-three secured deals with four UK distributors who paid upfront for the initial production run.
Leveraging the power of social media through TikTok and Instagram, she successfully promoted her brand’s ethos and its commitment to supporting Palestinians affected by displacement and injury.
The Salaam Cola moniker, inspired by a greeting widely used in Muslim nations, quickly hit shelves in grocery outlets, fast food chains, and shops serving ethnic communities across Britain.
Salaam Cola has now achieved international fame, boasting more than 1.9 billion cans sold in 16 countries across four continents, with several distinct recipes catering to diverse taste preferences.
Now a global brand, has made a splash by donating 10 per cent of all proceeds to charitable causes, with a whopping £250,000 from UK sales alone going to charity in 2024.
Aykiz believes it is the charity work that the company embraces which has been the most crucial element to the company’s expansion.
She explained: “We wanted to create more of an ethical drink for people who are going through poverty or malnutrition to be able to give back and help vulnerable people.
“It sent a powerful image to our consumers as we are partnered with ‘Muslims in Need’ a registered charity.
The full range of Aykiz’s soft drinks (Image: James Linsell Clark / SWNS)
“Every month we calculate the proceeds that need to go to the projects and we transfer them the money.
“But it’s not just the money, we actively work with the charity too, to do things like open schools for Palestinian children who were displaced to Egypt.
“I do think that a lot of people were looking for ethical companies because of the BDS [Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions] movement against Israel and the ICE situation with Coca Cola in the US with immigrant workers – there’s been a lot of problems with the legacy companies.
“But we’ve created a brand which proves we’re here for the people, and distributors and consumers seek us out for that.
“Giving back is in our DNA as Muslims and my clients who work with us give back an extra 10 per cent on top of that, which is really making a difference.
“Every month we provide a video on social media to show where the profits are going and for a lot of people they don’t feel guilty for buying a can which backs causes that they believe in – it’s a no brainer for a nice drink and the charity work we do.
“And that’s why I think Salaam Cola has become a movement and a household name.
“For me personally, it’s turned my life upside down – people work years and years to establish things that Salaam has managed to do in such a short space of time.”
Despite taking on a second employee in the UK in August 2024, Aykiz continues to operate from her kitchen island at home.
She is currently overseeing the development of new flavours of fizzy drinks, each supporting a different country with a unique twist.
Originally, Salaam Cola was created for Palestine, with the diet version – Seriously No Sugar – raising funds for Syria.
The company has also concocted ‘Yemonade’ to aid malnourished children in dire need of medical help and food.
Actor Sean Ward who supports Salaam. (Image: Alina Akbar / SWNS)
Salaam’s latest addition, ‘Lebanorange’, set to launch in the coming weeks, has been crafted to support Lebanon.
While the focus is primarily on the Middle East, Aykiz has been pleasantly surprised by the widespread support for the product from all sorts of people across numerous countries, including Coronation Street actor Sean Ward.
She expressed: “I initially thought it would be a predominantly Muslim-backed product but really everyone’s on board.
“We have distributors which are businesses that are run by Muslims, but equally we have lots of non-Muslim supporters who believe in the message too.
“When you step back, you see that there’s actually a lot of love in the world, despite all the negativity.
“We have been able to provide 10,000 Palestinians medical aid – we did that primarily for children in Al-Nasr hospital in Egypt who were victims of severe burns.
“In Syria, we sponsor orphans through school and we are rebuilding a mosque that was bombed.
“And we have a community kitchen in Yemen which provides food for families because there is such a problem with malnutrition – I believe it is the highest amount of poverty in the world.”
She continued: “We’ve even had celebrity backers, such as Sean Ward, who has been a massive supporter of our work, and volunteers regularly to overlook and visit the Salaam charity projects.”
Despite the success, Aykiz still feels very fortunate and grateful towards the four companies that originally backed her product.
She revealed: “We originally sold the product to four distributors across the UK, in Lancashire, the Midlands, London and Glasgow.
“They prepaid for a full container of Saalam and bought the stock to resell.
Aykiz Shah with her two children at a distribution warehouse for her Salaam Cola (Image: James Linsell Clark / SWNS)
“I was lucky – four buyers was still a relatively low number of backers, and the business all depended on how it went with them, but it’s crazy that it took off straight away.”
As a female entrepreneur in a male-dominated industry, Aykiz is proud of having broken stereotypes in the drinks arena – whilst wearing a burqa and a veil.
Aykiz said: “I do think the drinks industry is a very cut throat industry for everyone, but for women it’s just a touch harder.
“I’m a very conservative Muslim and I dress very modestly. That’s another stereotype that we’re breaking.
“But people love the product and I think they like working with me which is nice because I’m not judged by my appearance.
“I want to inspire and empower women to achieve for themselves, no matter the limitations and how they look.”
Balancing motherhood and business, Aykiz credits her husband, Mohammad, 36, for his support and is keen on keeping stress at bay.
She shared: “I have to remind myself to not let the stress catch up to me, that life’s too short for it.
“The meetings with Canada and the US can be in the middle of the night – at the start I was sleeping about two or three hours a day because it went viral straight away. I was living on coffees.
“I didn’t know what I was doing, every day was a learning curve and I was making it up as I went along.”
Reflecting on her success, she mused: “I don’t know how I did it or how it happened – I guess it’s God’s plan.”