Harry B Litherland

Harry B Litherland's, or HBL as it is known was established by Harry and Dorothy Litherland in 1959 with Harry selling TV valves from his car. A year later he followed this up with TV Tubes and in order to accommodate these, Harry acquired small premises in Cocker Street, Blackpool. In 1963, John Exton joined the company, bringing the total number of employees to six. One year later HBL moved to much larger premises on Caunce Street, Blackpool, they would remain there until July 1995 when they relocated again - this time to the current premises on Moor Park Industrial Estate in Bispham. Just twelve months later, having recognised the potential, Philex plc acquired a majority shareholding in HBL. 1997 saw the launch of the HBL flier, now recognised as one of the best in the field. Tens of thousands of fliers are distributed nationwide each month and customers eagerly await their arrival to pick out the latest bargains. In 1999 to celebrate 40 years of business, an Anniversary exhibition was held at Haydock Park Racecourse. Many of our leading suppliers took part in the two day event which was visited by thousands of our customers. 2001 saw John Exton retire from his post as Managing Director, selling his shares to Philex Plc, thus giving them 100% ownership of HBL. His successor was Alan Davidson, who had joined the company in the late 1970's and worked his way up to the top. The company has continued to grow to the point where in 2002 a second warehouse was purchased to allow the company to stock more items and increase levels of service. HBL are now one of the UK's leading wholesale Electronic distributors with a customer base of over 25,000. The number of product categories handled by the company is vast. Products from leading UK manufacturers such as Abstract, Antiference, Audio Technica, Citronic, Computar, Daewoo, Denon, De WALT, ESP, Fuji, Inter-M, JBL, Labgear, Marantz, Philex, Phonic, Samsung, Shure, Sennheiser, Signet, SLX, Sony, TEAC, Televes, Triax, TOA and Voltek all form part of the product ranges offered by HBL.