AN ethical supermarket is hoping to expand with a second store planned.

HiSbe is only £20,000 away from the £85,000 needed to fund the venture,

Its owners want the community to get involved with the social enterprise by offering time, skills or money to bring the new store to life.

HiSbe already has a store in York Place, Brighton, and the second shop will be in Kemp Town.

Two major social business funders are already lined up to provide match funding of £105,000 raised for the new premises.

This means £190,000 can be raised alongside the community support which will cover the costs of opening the second business.

Co-founder Ruth Anslow said: “We are proud to announce that hiSbe is set to expand.

“Three years of operating our pilot store has helped prove that you can run a supermarket as a social enterprise and put staff, suppliers and customers before profit.

“We want to get Brightonians involved and encourage them to join the supermarket revolution as hiSbe is first and foremost a store for the community. But we do need help to turn the old Tesco store into hiSbe Kemp Town.

“We invite supporters to contact us to find out how they can help us get our hands on the site and keep out the big chains.

“Core to our values is that suppliers get a fair price and Brighton’s increasing appetite for ethically sourced, sustainable and fairly priced food has allowed us to bring that fair price policy to even more local suppliers and now to a second store.

“We want to keep millions more pounds in the local economy, we want to create more rewarding living wage jobs for more people locally and we want to reinvent the way supermarkets do business in the future.”

HiSbe’s pilot store launched in York Place in 2013 with the aim to make good, locally sourced and sustainable food more affordable. The pilot received substantial investment at the time, including £20,000 from fair trade pioneer Gordon Roddick.

HiSbe is a community interest company, a legal structure meaning hiSbe operates as a commercial business with a social purpose.