VALDOSTA – What began as a sugar-coated dream in 1962 has become a family legacy that will soon open its doors in South Georgia.

Holt’s Sweet Shop will open its fourth location at the end of June in Valdosta with the Spivey family at the helm.

Garrett Spivey said his family’s plan has been to open five stores in five years, and they are on track to do just that. The other locations can be found in Waycross, Baxley and St. Mary’s.

Garrett said he developed the business model when he was just 7 years old – have one centralized production facility, making most items under one roof, with multiple retail locations.

The shop’s corporate office and production facility is located in the Waycross area.

Garrett grew up following in his grandparents’ and parents’ footsteps of working in a bakery and spent 10 years learning the ins and outs of the family business.

He married his high school sweetheart, Kacey, and they, along with their two young sons, Landon and Grayson, struck out with their business model to bring their family recipes to new areas.

During a ride around Valdosta, Garrett happened upon the old Moe’s building.

“There wasn’t a sign or anything so I got the number off another unit and called the agent,” Garrett said. “They (Moe’s) had only been closed for like two days. We met with the agent the next week and had a deal within a few days.”

While Moe’s and a sweets shop may be different types of environment, they are both food-based businesses; only light construction and repainting were required to make it into a new space.

The shop hopes to open June 29 and in the interim has been training staff on making the perfect donut, just like Garrett’s family has done for years. Several batches of donuts have been taken into the Valdosta community.

Upon opening, the process of crafting a perfect donut will be on full display. Customers can see their orders being handmade from start to finish. 

As for the fifth location in the family’s five-year goal, Garrett said it’s still up in the air but guesses somewhere such as Brunswick could be the next stop. For now, he’s happy to see how far his and his family’s legacy has come. 

“I’m already as far as I ever dreamed,” Garrett said. 

Garrett said he hopes his two sons will carry on the legacy started by his grandfather all those years ago. 

Holt’s Sweet Shop posts regular updates to its Facebook page and plans to be open Monday through Saturday with a tentative opening date of June 29. 

Desiree Carver is a reporter at the Valdosta Daily Times. She can be reached at (229) 244-3400 ext. 1215.