Whether you're following England or France, Ghana or Chile, Mackays will have the ice cream for you.

"We're going to try and get all the different colours of the strips and marry that up with the colour of the ice cream," explained owner John Mackay.

"England, for example, will be easy. We'll get a block of vanilla ice cream and mix it with red."

But die-hard England fans needn't worry about the colours running: "It won't go pink because we'll put it in the blast freezer and then you can cut it and do what ever you want with it," John said.

"Also, you can buy a scoop of ice cream in any colour, but then you can decorate it with all sorts of toppings in the team's colours.

"Hundreds and thousands, sherberts, there's a variety of different toppings, then we'll have little flags to stick in and we've got chocolate footballs, we'll put them in."
A
nd the World Cup theme will extend beyond the team colours, with John planning to make a football pitch out of ice cream!

"We're going to make a football pitch out of green ice cream and put in the goals and all the lines," he said. "There's lots of different things you can do. I'm going to have a look in a few books because I have never tried doing football pitches - this is a first!

"I have done things for Christmas, Easter and Valentine's Day, but never a football theme before, it's just about using your imagination.When you have been doing it for a long time you get into it."

John also picks up ideas from the World Gelato Championships, which he attends in Rimini, Italy, each year.

"All the people who are there are talented," John said.

"There's only so many places in Britain that do it and we're all friends, we enjoy going to the championships and it's a fact finding thing."

Explaining the efficiency of the blast freezer, John said: "There were guys there this year who were taking scoops of ice cream, standing 10, 20, even 30 feet apart.

"One would throw it to the other who would catch it. I've never seen anything like it!"

The quality of Mackays ice cream is regularly recognised by international body the Ice Cream Alliance, and this year they were presented with a bronze award for their pistachio flavour.

"We're always happy to win awards because we're just a small business," John said.

He believes the key to their success is what they put into the product, using quality ingredients rather than the cheaper options.

"We do put a lot into the product," he said.

Remembering an Eyemouth of the past, when the beach was covered with deck chairs, John is hoping the town can again fulfill its potential as an exciting day out.

"The beach used to be full of deck chairs, there was a paddling pool and crazy golf," John remembered. And to brighten up a walk along the beach, and to utalise the market, John is thinking of having an ice cream kiosk on the sea front.

With South Africa 2010 just around the corner, an ice-cream football pitch in the planning, and Eyemouth set to welcome holiday makers, Mackays are looking forward to a busy summer.

"A lot of the people that might have gone away on flights have been put off by the ash cloud," John explained,

"People are coming to the seaside on day trips and I think they will continue to do that.

"It's good for us. It's good for the Borders as well, and the whole of the UK, because people are investing back into this country."