2025 is a big year for Whatley Oil — not only is the company celebrating its 70th anniversary, but its Zelmo’s Zip In convenience store brand is turning 26.
Founded in 1955 by Bruce and Sara Whatley, Whatley Oil, headquartered in Columbus, Ga., serves commercial, agricultural and industrial customers, along with gas and diesel delivery, in addition to its 10 Zelmo’s Zip In convenience stores in Georgia and Alabama.
A Family Business
Today, the second and third generations are active in the family business. Bruce and Sara’s sons, Steve Whatley and Greg Whatley, currently serve as CEO/president and co-owner, respectively. Their grandson, Slaton Whatley — Steve’s son — has served as the brand’s director of sales since 2022, following a five-year tenure as director of operations beginning in 2017.
Six of the Zelmo’s Zip In c-stores serve the Columbus, Ga., community, which the Whatley family has called home for the past 25 years. The town is just east of the Alabama/Georgia state line. On the Alabama side is Phenix City, with two Zelmo’s units.
While the area is bisected by the Chattahoochee River, Slaton Whatley noted the two towns seem to bleed together into one, serving as a hub for the outdoorsy types — including himself. Before he joined the family business, Whatley worked for years as a backpacking guide in the Grand Canyon and Yosemite.
After reading Patagonia Founder Yvon Chouinard’s memoir on balancing business and outdoor conservation, he returned to Georgia eight years ago. While Whatley has swapped the days of sleeping in his car’s backseat or the belly of the Grand Canyon to working as an executive in the family business, the changes have been, “a lot of fun and it’s been a great time working with my dad and my uncle,” Whatley said.
Building Zelmo’s
Zelmo’s Zip In began operations in 1999. The company had previously leased out its locations, but as the quality of those sites began to decline, the family recognized an opportunity to raise standards by taking over operations themselves
“It was really my dad (Steve) who saw the opportunity to expand into convenience stores,” said Whatley. ‘Zelmo’ was Steve’s nickname on a basketball team. The high school moniker stuck and is now shared by the brand’s mascot, a hot rod-driving pup.
Whatley Oil has its own Zelmo’s branded fuel at one of its locations. Its other sites feature various gas brands, including Chevron/Texaco, Citgo and Liberty. Zelmo supplies fuel to around 70-80-stores in its dealer network within Georgia and Alabama.
The most recently opened Zelmo’s Zip In location is its two-year-old flagship in Midland Commons in Columbus, Ga., and it’s branded Zelmo’s “from inside the store to the pumps.” This c-store, said Whatley, “was the first time we felt confident enough to brand the pumps, the canopy, the sign, everything with Zelmo’s.”
Decorated in the signature punchy bright red, the Midland Commons location boasts a more modern look in comparison to the brand’s nine legacy locations. The flagship site measures 4,000 square feet, in comparison to Zelmo’s average of 1,200 square feet. The number of fuel dispensers also increased fivefold at the flagship store — from its average of four to 20.
“It took us a long time to feel comfortable with our brand recognition to (make the flagship), we didn’t want to just slap Zelmo’s up on a store 10 years ago, because not many people knew who we were,” he said.
The flagship store and its attached Arby’s, located on an 80-acre plot, was the first brick-and-mortar development at the time of its opening, but it has since been surrounded by condos, restaurants and a grocery store, cementing its place in the new neighborhood ecosystem.
The chain’s 10-location portfolio showcases the brand’s wide variety and willingness to create unique spaces, which Whatley likens to a sort of convenience store timeline. “From where we were solely focused on selling gas and diesel to now, (where our focus is) ‘How do we get (the customers) to buy food on the inside?’” Whatley said. “It’s like the evolutionary chart of ape to man — you could do that with our convenience stores.”
Due to the influence of the Chattahoochee River on the community, Whatley said that the three most recently opened Zelmo’s locations have embraced the nature theme in the store design, created in partnership with Paragon Solutions, a design firm based in Fort Worth, Texas. “When we built (these locations), one of our inspirations was an REI or an L.L. Bean type of store, with stacked stone and wood and a lot of mountain-themed, fishing and river-running graphics,” he said.
Foodservice Partnerships
Zelmo’s Zip In has traditionally stayed away from an extensive foodservice operation. The chain is currently leveraging strategic partnerships to offer greater menu variety. Two locations rent space to quick-service restaurants (an Arby’s and a McDonald’s, respectively). The association with a non-Zelmo’s foodservice brand has been helpful in providing an additional revenue stream, Whatley explained.
The chain’s other food offerings vary depending on location — Zelmo’s serves Hunt Brothers Pizza as well as made-in-house hot items like the popular breakfast bowl (grits topped with eggs and sausage), barbecue sandwiches and hamburgers.
Taking on Tech
Zelmo’s Zip In touts an extensive rewards program, where members can get instant savings by entering just their phone number, and the price decreases at the pump in real time. Every day, members save $0.03 per gallon, but the program also includes periodic flash sales from time to time of 25-cents or 50-cents off. Additionally, there are multiple buy-nine-get-one-free sales on biscuits, coffee, fountain drinks and cigarettes.
Whatley has also recently incorporated technology into his task of setting daily gas prices by swapping a massive set of PDFs and charts for real-time pricing software from EdgePetrol. He noted this software “has been a game changer for us and allows us to really leverage our highest-volume product and make more money for the company on gas and diesel sales and not just go with my gut feeling.”
Culture & Community
Well-lit, clean, and easily accessible, Zelmo’s Zip In has an appealing curbside appeal to a road tripper passing through, looking for an affordable spot to fuel up. For a community member in the tight-knit townships that the c-store brand serves, its involvement with local organizations has shifted the brand into an attractive mainstay locale.
Outside of Circle K, Zelmo’s is the only gas station and c-store chain in the areas it serves. Zelmo’s difference, said Whatley, is community involvement.
“Volunteering is what we enjoy doing, so we really lean into that as a differentiator. … It’s just people knowing us and seeing us,” Whatley said.
Every month, Zelmo’s Zip In team members, ranging from cashiers to general managers to executives, volunteer at Feeding the Valley, a local food pantry. Whatley even noted the brand was invited to speak at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the food bank. Other projects the team has helped with include planting trees with the non-profit Trees Columbus, trash pick-ups by the Chattahoochee River, and sponsoring a high school EV racing team.
“On the convenience store side, we employ 100 people,” Whatley said. “In some cases, they live in my neighborhood, the stores are in my neighborhood, and these are people who live in my city. What is truly the most interesting to me is getting to work with local people and find creative solutions for them.”
Zelmo’s Zip In has a handful of employees who have been with the Whatley brand since the c-store branch began. As a company that has stretched across three generations, Whatley pointed to family and flexibility as Whatley Oil’s tenets of success. While most employees do not share the same last name as the CEO, care comes in tandem with commitment.
“My dad used to say that if we had to close a store because someone had a family emergency, ‘it’s just gas’ — the family emergency is way more important than just selling gas,” Whatley said. “Our goal is to be the best convenience store employer in the state, and I’d want to be one of the better employers, period, in the state.”
Zelmo’s has placed a large emphasis on nurturing its staff members. Recently, the brand has partnered with a local technical college to open GED (general educational development) opportunities for employees. At present, there are seven team members taking this extra step for their own education.
Whatley has been working with the Boston-based Good Jobs Institute, helping improve the quality of work for Zelmo’s employees while the brand transitions amidst growth. “(This effort) includes pay, (employees) being empowered to make more decisions and cleaning up our operations to support that.”
Sustained Growth Ahead
Now as it celebrates 70 years and looks to the future, Zelmo’s plans to continue refining its operations while pursuing organic growth.
Most recently, Zelmo’s Zip In completed several remodels on its Texaco-supplied stores (paid for by Texaco), adding updated flooring, beverage counters and signage. Every month, Whatley said, some department or c-store facet is being revamped.
“We enjoy more sustainable growth that we don’t have to take on a ton of debt to do,” he said. “We wait until we’re in a really good position to pay a lot of the bills in cash rather than having to finance things.”
Whatley said the brand is in for ‘the long haul.’ “We’ve gone from two stores to 10 in 25 years — that’s pretty slow by industry standards, but that’s what we feel comfortable with. It’s an emphasis on quality rather than quantity.”
“The business has been good for us as a family, and my goal is for us to be a 100-year business and that really determines the decisions I make on a daily basis,” Whatley said. “If by the time I retire, I’ve got 20 incredible, high-quality, high-performing stores, I’ll be pumped!”
