A drink with… Michelle Ivey, Lake Hour
After 10 years at Ilegal Mezcal, Michelle Ivey has swapped agave spirits for another booming sector as she takes the helm at Lake Hour – the ready-to-drink brand founded by filmmaker Richard Peete and actor Wyatt Russell.
*This feature was originally published in the January 2026 issue of The Spirits Business magazine.
What led you to join Lake Hour as its first CEO?
I was introduced to the company by Taylor Foxman, who operates the Industry Collective. I met Taylor after I was close to wrapping up Ilegal’s transition to Bacardi, and I was not staying on. As amazing as agave is, and as much as it’s been a growth category, I’ve been in it for a long time and I wanted to work in other growth sectors. One of the only few out there is spirits-based RTDs, and I find it fascinating. I’ve been on my own personal health journey – sugar, low calories – all these things fed into my conversations with Taylor on the next major things I wanted to look at. She had already been working with Lake Hour, and said: “I have some guys you need to meet, and I think it’s a product you’re gonna love.” And that’s how it came to be.
Are you looking at market expansion?
Lake Hour is very well established in upstate New York. Buffalo is its hometown. We want to really establish it in the US. We’re not looking international at all, but we’re going to expand to the lake communities. We’re looking deep at Minnesota, Wisconsin, more of the Midwest, like Illinois for Lake Michigan, and we’re also launching in Texas in 2026.
How do you plan to scale the brand?
We’re looking at continual expansion over the next three to five years, mainly through secondary markets, extensively across the Midwest. We’re looking generally at new styles of distribution that give us a lot of opportunity for these convenience brands, because those types of distributors know how to distribute through convenience, grocery and retail in a way that traditional spirits distributors may not have had a lot of experience in. Plus, they do the on-premise extensively since they come from the beer world. So we’re looking to develop those relationships in our markets, build it out through the beer, spirits wholesaler networks, and start having conversations about an exit.
How do you plan to leverage the founders in future marketing?
Rich is a celebrity in his own right in the movie world and Wyatt is more known to the public. However, it’s not a celebrity brand in the way that we’ve seen a lot of celebrity brands. There are things about Wyatt and his personality that we will be bringing in. For example, we are the primary sponsor for an NHL alumni classic game, because Wyatt is a retired professional [ice] hockey player as well as an actor. It’s a way for us to shore up our business in the winter, which is a concern for a lot of people when looking at investments and trying to understand a business. We won’t just be a summer business.
What have you learned during your time in the industry?
You have to say no a lot. There may be opportunities that sound like they’re going to be amazing, but the time is not right, or the margins aren’t right, or it’s just not the right place for you to be.
Is the eventual goal to sell the brand?
Particularly in the US, you get to a tipping point where it makes sense that you want a majority partner. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the Diageos and Bacardis of the world. It could be Coca-Cola, Pepsi. Those are truly becoming total beverage. You have so much opportunity in the world. You need to flip that over to some type of majority partner; companies that can come in and take over those next phases. They [the founders] want Lake Hour to become a forever brand, so eventually they will get an exit.
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