Submitted photoAdam Mitchell, CEO of Mitchell Distributing, Manny Mitchell, Chairman of the Board and Evan Athanas, president of Chesapeake Beverage. 

Mitchell Distributing, which started as a small family business in Meridian in the 1940s, has grown and expanded far beyond the Queen City.

That success was celebrated Thursday night when the company hosted Business After Hours at its distribution warehouse in Meridian. 

The business has been at its 49th Avenue location since 1931, when E.J. Mitchell opened a grocery store on the site.

According to the company’s website, Mitchell Distributing was started when brothers Mann and Bilbo Mitchell began distributing Falstaff beers in the areas near Meridian.

In 1953, Mann Mitchell took the helm of the company and started a longstanding partnership with Anheuser-Busch. In 1975, Mann’s son, Manny, entered the business and now serves as Mitchell’s chairman of the board. In 2006, Manny’s son, Adam, came on board, adding a third generation to the company.

The company has continued to grow during its long history. In 2002, the company expanded to Leland, where it later opened a new warehouse facility, which features office spaces, more warehouse space and a massive conference room. 

In late 2008, the company doubled its volume and service territory by acquiring the Columbus and Tupelo market. In the spring of 2014, the Mitchell family signed an agreement to buy the A-B distributor in Baltimore, Maryland which has since been named Chesapeake Beverage. Manny Mitchell’s son-in-law, Evan Athanas is president of that company.

Mitchell Distributing also purchased a stake in FP Winner, a distributor of brands including Corona, Pabst, Sierra Nevada, Dogfish Head and Diageo for the entire state of Maryland.  

In 2015, Mitchell purchased the assets of Delta Distributing Company in Greenwood, and in October 2016, the company completed the purchase of Rex Distributing, the Anheuser-Busch distributor on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Early this year, Mitchell Distributing expanded its non-alcoholic product line to by signing a distribution agreement with the American Bottling Company.

Seventy years after it started, Mitchell Distributing employs more than 500 people and is the largest Anheuser Busch distributor in Mississippi.

Adam Mitchell, the company’s CEO, credits the business’s success to setting high standards.

“We’ve created a culture of competitiveness where winning and excellence are the expected standards every day,” he said.

Manny Mitchell attributes the success of the business to building relationships with the right people.

“With the right people in the right places, we can do anything” has always been our guiding principle,” he said. “We’ve tried to study the trends in our industry and create relationships with our suppliers and customers, while making sure that we give back to our communities. We’ve been fortunate enough to attract and retain great people and great brands through the years.”