Andrew Mitchell

Chief Executive Officer Hayden Beverage Company

Last Reviewed: September 28, 2026

Executive Summary

Andrew “Andy” Mitchell is Chief Executive Officer of Hayden Beverage Company, the Boise, Idaho distributor of beer, hard cider, wine, spirits and non-alcoholic drinks that the Hayden family has owned since the 1970s. He joined in 2014 as its first Executive Vice-President of Sales and rose to President and then CEO, running the business day to day under owner and chairman Dodds Hayden. He brought to the job a mix of experience that is uncommon among wholesale distributors: craft and beverage start-ups such as Pete’s Brewing Company and Trinity Springs on one side, and large consumer-goods companies including Gallo, Constellation Brands and Nestle Purina on the other. In 2026 he was the company’s public voice on its strategic partnership with Columbia Distributing.

Career Highlights

• Chief Executive Officer of Hayden Beverage Company, named on the company’s own People page and in June 2026 press coverage.
• Joined Hayden in February 2014 in the newly created position of Executive Vice-President of Sales.
• Served as President of Hayden Beverage Company, the title given in his January 2025 CiderCon speaker biography.
• Credited in his American Cider Association biography with leading Hayden’s expansion to statewide coverage of Idaho and Montana, and with receiving the Vistage Impact Award for Idaho presidents and CEOs in 2020.
• Earlier worked for Gallo, Constellation Brands and Nestle Purina, and for the early-stage companies Pete’s Brewing Company and Trinity Springs.

Professional Journey

Mitchell spent 18 years in California before he and his wife moved to Idaho in 2005. His career before Hayden ran across both ends of the drinks and consumer-goods industries. On the corporate side he worked for Gallo, Constellation Brands and Nestle Purina, companies Hayden credits with teaching strong business discipline; on the entrepreneurial side he worked for the early-stage companies Pete’s Brewing Company and Trinity Springs. His speaker biography sums up the combination as experience in controlling operations, executing at retail and creating consumer demand.

He joined Hayden Beverage Company in February 2014, filling the newly created role of Executive Vice-President of Sales. The company traces its roots to 1936, when a Boise grocery distributor took on Olympia beer after Idaho ended Prohibition; John Hayden was hired to run it in 1970 and later owned it, and his son Dodds took over in 2006. Mitchell later became President, and in that role he is credited with significant growth, including the company’s push to cover the whole of Idaho and, from 2018, Montana. In 2020 he received the Vistage Impact Award for Idaho presidents and CEOs.

He is now Chief Executive Officer, with Dodds Hayden as owner and chairman. In February 2026 Hayden sold its Montana business to another distributor to concentrate on Idaho. In June 2026 it announced a partnership with the Pacific Northwest distributor Columbia Distributing, under which Columbia would take a minority stake in Hayden and Hayden’s owners would take a minority interest in Columbia, while Hayden stayed independently operated. Speaking to the Idaho Press, Mitchell described the benefits mainly in terms of logistics: pooling orders with a larger partner to cut freight costs, bringing in lower-volume products that would otherwise be too expensive to ship to Idaho, and, in time, using Columbia’s technology to improve delivery routing in a market with strong seasonal swings.

Education

No education record was found in any source reviewed.