Gusthart's was established in 1985 as "Gusthart's Chainsaw Centre" by Jim and Robert Gusthart, a father and son team with over 92 years of chainsaw experience between them.
Jim Gusthart started in the timber trade in 1938. His son Robert joined him at the age of 15 when he left school and went to work at H. Irwin & Son, a local timber merchant, where they sold and repaired all makes of chainsaw.
After working together for 16 years Jim and Robert left H. Irwin & Son, taking with them the STIHL dealership and establishing themselves in business as "Gusthart's Chainsaw Centre".
They were amongst the original tenants to arrive at Milkhope Centre, a 19th century farm based at Blagdon in Northumberland which had been converted into light industrial units.
From their new home at Milkhope Centre, Rob and Jim grew their business specialising mainly in the sales and repair of outdoor power equipment such as Chainsaws, Strimmers, Lawnmowers and Hedgecutters.
Sadly in 1996 Jim Gusthart passed away. As a result, Robert's brother in law left his role as a car mechanic to join Robert at Gusthart's. The family line was to continue a few years later with the addition of Michael's son Phil also joining the business straight from school.
Business steadily grew for Gusthart's in the years that followed Jim's sad passing. Staff levels increased to accommodate the ever growing range of products we both sold and repaired. And in an attempt to move with the times a small website was established too.
The biggest growth seen within the business though was through the sales of climbing equipment.
A staff member at the time being a former arborist introduced it, and what started as the odd harness or rope here and there, grew and grew to the point we were carrying a full range of arborist equipment.
The consequence of this growth throughout the business meant we were steadily outgrowing our home of 27 years and had to look for pastures new.
On the 5th of November 2012 we moved into our new home. A purpose built base only 100yards from our previous residence, remaining on the Milkhope Centre at Blagdon where we remain to this day!
Gustharts is a family-owned and operated business that has been serving the community for over 30 years. In this video shot by the Forestry Journal, we take you on a tour of our store, where you can see the wide variety of products we have for sale, including chainsaws, pole saws, tree care equipment, and more. We also show you our repair center, where our experienced technicians can fix your broken professional or domestic machineryquickly and efficiently.
