SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Colonial Group Inc., the parent company of Colonial Oil Industries Inc. and Enmarket Inc., has signed a letter of intent to acquire Glennville, Ga.-based Clyde’s Market Inc., Clyde’s Market CEO Greg Woolard confirmed to CSP Daily News.
The deal includes 36 Clyde’s Market convenience stores in southeastern Georgia.
“We expect a closing in late November,” said Brett Giesick, executive vice president and general manager of Savannah, Ga.-based enmarket, also confirming the transaction.
In 1969, Clyde Woolard managed a c-store for his brother-in-law Carl Jones, the founder and owner of the Flash Foods c-store chain, in Folkston, Ga. He struck out on his own and opened a store in Glennville, building the first Clyde's Market. He purchased two oil companies in the 1980s and 2003, naming the combined companies Woodland Oil. In 2009, he added a sit-down barbecue restaurant in Glennville named The Rusty Pig.
Robert Demere founded enmarket in Savannah in 1963 as Interstate Stations. It operated as Interstate Stations until 1990, when Demere changed the name to Enmark. In 2015, the company opened its first two stores branded as enmarket, a rebranding process that continues in 2017. The company operates 59 locations throughout Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.
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