Selling drinks filled with ice in January is a brave move – but Zack Hayter has already done his market research.

Zack founded his mobile drinks business, the Slush Truck, in April 2022 after he saw an opportunity to sell the popular frozen beverage outdoors.

He said: “It was a really hot day and I thought ‘I really fancy a slushie!’ and it went from there.

“It was part-time alongside my full-time job in management and after three weeks it took off and I had to give up my job and we’ve been very successful.”

But because of the mixed conditions of this year’s summer, when a glorious June gave way to a long spell of rain, not many people came out to events attended by Zack.

He decided the best way to keep the till ticking over on wet and cold days was to expand his offering beyond 24 flavours of slushie to include sweets, drinks and chocolate from all over the world.

Zack said: “We currently have a pick and mix range of sweets that we sell online and in the shop we will have sweets from America, Korea and Japan.

“What’s nice about Alton is there are a lot of small businesses and it’s nothing like the big high street names you get, and I know quite a few of the businesses already.”

People looking for a sneaky peek into the shop can find the Slush Truck on TikTok, where Zack’s videos – often just simple ones of him making the slushies – have gone viral.

He said: “One of my videos has been viewed 37 million times, and we got featured in FOODbible, which is owned by the LADbible Group.

“It has helped grow the business and we have had people travel over two hours to come and see us at a particular event.”

Zack is looking forward to welcoming potential customers. Exact opening hours for the shop are yet to be determined but it will operate from Tuesday to Saturday. For more details visit www.slushtruck.co.uk/