S.A. White Oil Company: Fueling Metro Atlanta for Nearly a Century

What started as a general store nearly 100 years ago has grown into one of the most successful and vital family-owned businesses in Cobb County.

The S.A. White Oil Company sits just south of downtown Marietta on a thin strip of land along Atlanta Street. It’s the same spot where the company founder, Samuel Alfred White, opened his general store in 1926. It was a good location for business, right on a main road and a trolley line. The store did well and soon Mr. White began selling gasoline, becoming the first Sinclair fuel agent in the area.

That decision to sign on with Sinclair fuels would prove to be instrumental in the company’s direction and success.

While the old general store is long gone, fuel and fuel-related products remain the lifeblood of S.A. White. The company eventually transitioned from selling gas at the pump to exclusively selling fuel by the truck load to other gas stations, businesses and various government entities.

Generational Change

Today, S.A. White Oil is owned and run by Kim Gresh, granddaughter of the founder. Before Gresh took over, the company was run by her parents, Wally and Suse Ann Gresh, who inherited the company in 1963 after Mr. White passed away.

Wally Gresh was a tireless salesman who believed that a wide range of customers would benefit the company in the long run. To this end, he drove 80,000 miles a year securing new business. And to attract more customers, he expanded the variety of fuels that S.A. White offered.

Lessons Learned

When Kim Gresh took over S.A. White, she kept those practices, and many others, in mind.

Speaking of their customer base she said, “We are still very diverse and that is by my father’s design. We try to be recession-proof by focusing on different industries.”

While they deliver fuel to many construction companies, S.A. White also has contracts with the City of Atlanta, Cobb County and many other municipalities.

“Our diverse customer base helped us survive the 2008 recession when the construction industry came to a standstill,” said Gresh.

Conversely, Gresh remembers that during Covid, “Gas stations didn’t need much fuel. But municipalities and construction firms kept us busy. My father’s adage of having a wide customer base worked out for us.”

Changing The Delivery

As Gresh admits, adaptability is a must in the oil business. When some of her commercial customers started removing their in-ground storage tanks due to stricter regulations, Gresh changed the delivery method, starting a new sister company called Mobilized Fuels.

These trucks operate strictly at night, going on-site to businesses where they fill the fuel tanks of vehicles individually.

Always On Call

Even with all the evolution she’s brought, Gresh has never forgotten what her father taught her about treating customers. “Gas and diesel fuel is a commodity. Anyone can sell it. But customer service is what matters. It’s what we’ve built out entire company on,” said Gresh. “I want to make sure that if a customer has a problem, we know about it and are reacting to it quickly.” To solidify her point, Gresh cheerfully boasted that, “If the phone rings here, we pick it up. We do not have voice mail and never will as long as I’m alive.” Leaving her own legacy. Since taking over, not only has Gresh guided her company to success, but she’s also proven herself a formidable businesswoman in a male dominated industry, eventually becoming the first woman to serve on the board of the Georgia Oilman’s Association. Along with running her two businesses, Gresh is also a tireless supporter of non-profits and other organizations in her community. “Except for going to college, I’ve spent my whole life here,” she said. “And as Cobb County has grown so has S.A. White, so I feel an absolute need to give back to the community.”

Handling The Complexity

To say that S.A. White’s finances have many moving parts is an understatement. The company has over 20 accounts with SouthState Bank. And every day, millions of dollars move in and out of many of those accounts.

And while Gresh has been running the company for years, she is grateful that her SouthState bankers, Vivian Battershill-Diaz and Charity Brundage, both have a keen understanding of her business. “They are a dynamic duo and can handle anything my business needs on any day,” she said.

On the close relationship, Battershill-Diaz adds, “Kim can pick up the phone and tell me what she needs without a long explanation because we know how both of her businesses are set up and how they work.”

“The first thing I’ve learned about S.A. White is that they need to move money and move it fast,” said SouthState’s Charity Brundage. She adds, “Given that necessity for quick movement of money, I’m proud of our ability to strengthen S.A. White’s operational efficiency and improve the speed of their financial transactions.”

With the amount of money in flux every day, Gresh relies heavily on many of SouthState’s banking tools. “Treasury Management is great, I can see all my accounts, all my loans. And lines of credit are huge for us, because we have that big gap between paying for products and getting paid from our customers.”

Ready For Anything

The reality of the oil business is that anything can happen to affect price or supply. In May of 2021 the Colonial Pipeline, which carries fuel from the Gulf of Mexico through Atlanta and up the East Coast, came under cyber-attack. In an instant, the main gasoline supply to metro Atlanta stopped.

At S.A. White, Gresh started making phone calls. “I was able to find product in other states and because of my same-day ACH, I was able to pay those suppliers immediately. And I had fuel available to pick up the next day,” she said.

Appreciating The Relationship

Given S.A. White’s long history of delivering exceptional customer service, it’s no surprise that Gresh puts tremendous value on her banking relationships.

“You can’t ask for better people or more responsive people. They will go the extra mile for you. There’s nothing like the relationship I have with them,” she said.

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