Salt Lake City's Swire Coca-Cola names Kendell president and CEO

Swire Coca-Cola, USA, a bottler and distributor of Coca-Cola and other beverage brands across a 13-state region of the West, has appointed Andrea Kendell as president and CEO. She assumes the role after decades of leadership experience and operational knowledge at the corporate level. Prior to joining Swire as CFO in January, Kendell was chief financial officer for North America and senior vice president of finance for global manufacturing at in vitro diagnostics company bioMérieux.

“To be the steward of Swire Coca-Cola USA and all that goes with it — our people, our brands, our customers, our history and our future — is a great responsibility and a great privilege,” said Kendell. “I know the foundation of our success has always been our people. I am honored and humbled to have the opportunity to help our people unleash their individual and collective potential as we deliver refreshment to the communities we call home.”

“I’d like to congratulate Andrea on her appointment as president and CEO of Swire Coca-Cola USA,” said Pat Healy, chair of Swire Coca-Cola Limited. “As an organization that was founded more than 200 years ago, the Swire group knows how important it is to have leaders with a vision for the future coupled with stewardship of the past. We are excited to have Andrea at the helm to shape the next chapter in the growth of our U.S. beverage operations.”

Swire also announced that Marc Hempstead as chief financial officer. He joins Swire Coca-Cola, USA from the Swire Group. He started his career with KPMG and has been with Swire since 2017, first with Swire Pacific in Hong Kong, then with the Steamships division in Papua New Guinea and most recently with HAECO, the Swire Group’s aircraft maintenance division in Hong Kong.

“We are confident Andrea is the right person to fulfill our mission of winning together by serving as constant and true advocates for our people, our customers, our partners, our community and our planet,” said Karen So, managing director of Swire Coca-Cola Limited. “With Andrea as the new president and CEO, Marc in the CFO role and strong leaders across our territory, we know we have the right people in the right seats to support our mission and drive growth.”

Swire Coca-Cola, USA was founded in 1978 in Salt Lake City as a division of Swire Pacific Limited, a listed company on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited. It now employs more than 8,000 people in six production plants and 43 distribution centers across parts of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The company delivers more than 50 beverage brands to 31 million consumers.

Kendell and Hempstead will both be based at the Draper headquarters of Swire.