Buda Juice CEO Horatio Lonsdale-Hands Talks First Public Interview

Buda Juice, Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN: BUDA) has only just started trading publicly, and its CEO has now given his first interview to The Wall Street Transcript, published November 13, 2026, in the consumer CEO interviews series.

The company is led by Horatio Lonsdale-Hands, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. He brings more than 40 years of senior management experience across food and beverage, telecommunications, and hospitality. That track record matters for a newly public consumer company. Investors in small-cap listings often price in execution risk. A chief executive with four decades of operating history across three industries changes that calculation.

Who is running Buda Juice?

Lonsdale-Hands has founded or co-founded four companies. Each one sits in a different corner of the consumer economy.

• Nipper's Champagne Clubs (1982-1988). Co-Founder and President. The hospitality company ran upscale entertainment venues in Montecito and Beverly Hills, California.
• ZuZu, Inc. (1989-1998). Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of a fast-casual restaurant chain. He is credited with coining the term "fast casual" — the category label now used across the restaurant industry.
• Advance Global Communications, Inc. (2000-2013). Co-Founder and President of an international telecommunications company that was an early adopter of voice over IP (VoIP) technology.
• Buda Juice, Inc. (present). Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the juice company now trading on NYSE American.

The ZuZu chapter is the standout item on the résumé. Coining the name of an entire restaurant category is rare. It signals that Lonsdale-Hands thinks in terms of market positioning, not just unit operations, and that thinking now applies to a beverage brand entering public markets.

What else is on the record?

Beyond the founder roles, Lonsdale-Hands has served on boards and executive committees at Arby's Inc., Advance Global Communications, ZuZu, Inc., and the Rodeo Drive Committee. He was educated at Harrow School in the U.K. He holds certification in HACCP and food safety — a directly relevant credential for a company whose products are consumed as food and drink.

The interview itself marks a milestone. As The Wall Street Transcript noted at the open of the conversation, this is the first time the outlet has spoken with him, because Buda Juice only started trading publicly. New listings typically trigger a wave of first-time CEO interviews, and this Q&A, dated November 13, 2026, is that opening move for the company.

Why the CEO's history matters to the listing

The pattern across Lonsdale-Hands's career is early positioning in categories that later scaled. He built upscale venues in Beverly Hills in the 1980s, named and built a fast-casual chain in the 1990s, and rode VoIP adoption in the 2000s telecommunications market. Each venture placed him in a segment before it matured. Buda Juice, a consumer beverage play now listed on NYSE American under the ticker BUDA, is the fourth such bet, and the first one he is running as a public-company chief executive.

His board exposure adds another layer. Sitting on Arby's executive bodies gave him visibility into large-scale restaurant operations, a useful reference point for a food and beverage founder scaling a branded product.

What comes next?

The interview is the company's formal introduction to the investing public's interview circuit. With a 40-year operator at the helm, HACCP certification in hand, and a history of category-defining ventures, Buda Juice's first full year as a listed company will test whether the founder's early-mover instinct transfers from restaurants and telecom into the public juice market.