Buda Juice CEO Horatio Lonsdale-Hands Named Finalist For The EY US Entrepreneur Of The Year 2026 Southwest Award

Recognition Highlights Founder-Led Innovation and Growth in the Ultra Fresh™ Beverage Category

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Buda Juice, Inc. (NYSE American: BUDA), $BUDA, creator and pioneer of the Ultra Fresh category, today announced Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Horatio Lonsdale-Hands has been named a finalist for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2026 Southwest Award by Ernst & Young LLP (EY US).

Horatio Lonsdale-Hands, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Buda Juice, commented:

“Being named a finalist is an honor and a reflection of what our team has built over the past decade. We believed consumers deserved a fresher alternative, so we built the infrastructure required to deliver it at scale. Although our products now reach more households through leading retailers, we believe we are still in the early stages of building the Ultra Fresh category. This recognition belongs to our loyal customers, team members and retail partners who helped make it possible.”

Now in its 41st year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program celebrates the bold leaders who disrupt markets through the world’s most ground-breaking companies, revolutionizing industries and uplifting communities. The program honors entrepreneurs whose innovations drive economic growth and help shape the future of business.

Entrepreneur Of The Year honors business leaders for their ingenuity, courage and entrepreneurial spirit. The program celebrates founders who bootstrapped their businesses from inception or raised outside capital to grow their companies, transformational CEOs who infused innovation into an existing organization to catapult its trajectory, and multigenerational family business leaders who reimagined a legacy business model to strengthen it for the future.

About Buda Juice

Buda Juice (NYSE American: BUDA) is the creator and pioneer of the Ultra Fresh™ category through an end-to-end cold chain platform that delivers always-cold, freshly crafted juices, lemonades and wellness shots to grocery retailers. The Company provides a turnkey alternative to shelf-stable beverages and in-store juicing, enabling retailers to offer truly fresh, clean-label products without added infrastructure or operational complexity. Its continuous 35°F cold chain from fruit to shelf delivers products with an 8 to 12-day shelf life that preserves authentic taste and nutrient quality while enabling efficient retail distribution.

Buda Juice’s proprietary cold-chain infrastructure enables the Company to scale the Ultra Fresh category nationally while maintaining the quality, safety and consistency required by leading grocery retailers, with a disciplined focus on profitability. Additional information about the Company can be found at https://budajuice.com.

About Entrepreneur Of The Year^®

Founded in 1986, Entrepreneur Of The Year^® has celebrated more than 11,000 ambitious visionaries who are leading successful, dynamic businesses in the US, and it has since expanded to nearly 80 countries and territories globally.

The US program consists of 17 regional programs whose panels of independent judges select the regional award winners every June. Those winners compete for national recognition at the Strategic Growth Forum^® in November, where national finalists and award winners are announced. The national overall winner represents the US at the World Entrepreneur Of The Year® competition. Visit ey.com/us/eoy.

About EY

EY is building a better working world by creating new value for clients, people, society and the planet, while building trust in capital markets.

Enabled by data, AI and advanced technology, EY teams help clients shape the future with confidence and develop answers for the most pressing issues of today and tomorrow.

EY teams work across a full spectrum of services in assurance, consulting, tax, strategy and transactions. Fueled by sector insights, a globally connected, multi-disciplinary network and diverse ecosystem partners, EY teams can provide services in more than 150 countries and territories. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com