Pioneering alternative supermarket HISBE (How It Should Be) has been declared insolvent and the business taken into voluntary liquidation. 

The announcement comes after the retailer – which operated as a social enterprise – closed its two stores, in Brighton and Worthing, in January in a last ditch bid to secure new funding. 

Sisters Ruth and Amy Anslow and their friend Jack Simmonds opened HISBE’s (How It Should Be) Brighton pilot store in 2013 with the aim of offering an ethical alternative to the UK’s ‘big four’ supermarket scene. HISBE opened a second store in Worthing in 2021 after raising £450,000 worth of additional funding through Triodos Bank’s crowdfunding platform. 

Challenging the supermarket business model
From the beginning, HISBE positioned itself as an ‘alternative supermarket’ rather than a health food or vegan food shop, with an ambition to challenge the way the big supermarkets do business. 

In a statement issued earlier this month, HISBE said: “It’s with great sadness that we announce the very painful decision to declare HISBE insolvent and take the company into voluntary liquidation. 

“Since the final tranche of our recovery funding fell through, we have explored all avenues to raise the investment we need to re-open the stores, but HISBE is carrying too much debt from the last four years for funders to put new money in. 

“We were following a strategic turnaround plan and slowly trading our way back, but ultimately could not weather the cumulative impacts of covid, inflation and the cost-of-living crisis. 

“We’d like to respond to the love and concern that customers and supporters have expressed for our people – the staff, suppliers and founders.”

HISBE thanked staff members for their commitment and maintaining “a friendly community vibe for customers” despite the extra pressures they had been under. And then company has acknowledge the significant impact HISBE’s closure will haver on its suppliers, many of whom it had long relationships with. “Sadly but inevitably the closure of HISBE leaves many with unpaid invoices that we were expecting to clear in January. It’s creating enormous personal and financial stress for some of them – and we are sad and sorry that it has come to this.”

Seeds of change
The statement concluded: :”Together we created something beautiful and kept it going for 10 years, against all the odds.

We hope that our rebel supermarket sowed a seed of change – and we trust that the important work to transform the food industry will continue through others.”