Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Buddha Juice Third Quarter Fiscal 2026 Earnings Conference Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. I will now hand the conference over to Luke Zimmerman, Investor Relations. Luke, please go ahead.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Buddha Juice's third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. During today's presentation, all parties will be in a listen-only mode, followed by the prepared remarks. We will open the conference for questions. Today's conference is being recorded. and our earnings release was issued after the market closed today. Joining us are Buddha Juice co-founder and chief executive officer Horatio Lonsdale-Hands and chief financial officer Clint Bowers. Before beginning, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements made during this call, including statements regarding our growth strategy, expected production transitions, plant capacity, retail expansion and future financial performance, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involved risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement except as required by law. Please refer to today's earnings release and the risk factors described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. including annual reports on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for discussion of important factors that could cause actual results to differ. We will also discuss adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, and the required disclosures and reconciliations are included in today's earnings release. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Horatio. Horatio, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Luke. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm pleased to report that the third quarter was the strongest revenue quarter in Buddha Juice's history. Revenue increased 64% year over year to a record $5.2 million. When we last spoke on our second quarter earnings call in August, we reported that the preliminary sales for the first six weeks of the quarter were growing by more than 40%. and we finished the third quarter with 64% revenue growth. This acceleration is very encouraging. And even more importantly, the underlying strength of this growth is the 23% year over year increase in same store sales in core beverage business. This tells us something very important. In stores where consumers are already familiar with ultra-fresh, they are buying more of our products. And in our industry, that is one of the most important indications of sustainable growth. Velocity is what earns additional shelf space, additional products, and ultimately additional retail distribution. At the same time, we are expanding into new stores and new product categories. More Velocity, More Stores, and More Product Lines. These are the three principal growth engines of Buddha Juice. All three contributed to our performance during the third quarter. Just as importantly, profitability improved substantially on a sequential basis. Gross margin increased 417 basis points quarter over quarter to 40.8%. and Ned Income increased 84% quarter over quarter to approximately 866,000. Adjusted EBITDA increased 35% year over year to 1.3 million, representing approximately 25% of revenue. These results were achieved while absorbing the additional expenses associated with being a public traded company. Before discussing our growth initiatives in more detail, I want to explain why we believe the opportunity ahead for Buddha Juice is so significant. Consumers increasingly want products that are genuinely fresh, made with clean ingredients, convenient and affordable. We believe this shift represents a significant opportunity for the food and beverage industry, and it is precisely this opportunity Buddha Juice is positioned to address. We have created and pioneered what we call the ultra-fresh category. Ultra-fresh is not simply a premium version of conventional juice. It is a fundamentally different category. Our clean beverages are not pasteurized, UV-treated, or high-pressure processed like HPP, and they are produced and distributed through our Fresh 35 system maintaining a continuous 35 degree cold chain from farm to retail shelf. Our fresh to you approach is designed to deliver products from our facility to the retailer in less than 72 watts. And our products are merchandised in the produce department where consumers already expect to find generally fresh food. We believe that is what generally fresh beverages belong. There is another important aspect of our business that I want to emphasize. Buddha Juice is a founder-led company, and our culture has been built around an uncompromising commitment to taste, freshness, safety, product quality, and operational discipline. Above all, we believe our products must be sensational and must taste sensational, because no matter how fresh, how healthy, or how affordable our product may be, It is this taste that brings consumers back and back again. Our growing product portfolio, from our ultra-fresh lemonades, limeades, and pure citrus juices, to our wellness shots and refrigerated dressings, reflects our commitment to exceptional quality, innovation, and above all, sensational taste. These principles have guided us from the beginning, and they will continue to guide us as we expand nationally. We're not interested in sacrificing the integrity of our products simply to achieve greater scale. And importantly, we are demonstrating that ultra-fresh products do not have to be expensive. Historically, many of the freshest food and beverage products have been priced beyond the reach of everyday consumers. We believe that should change. And our objective is to make ultra-fresh products accessible to millions of American households which we believe in turn helps to drive the strong velocities we see on the shelves today. For example, our Buddha Fresh Lemonade and Buddha Fresh Strawberry Lemonade are now offered at select Walmart stores in nine states for $1.28 for a 12 ounce bottle. This is an exceptional everyday value for a generally fresh beverage, and it is competitively priced against mainstream juices, bottled water, and even soft drinks. Ultra Fresh is not a luxury, and we have the opportunity to bring a new standard of freshness to the market, the mass market, and that is the central part of our mission. Let me turn to our first of three growth engines. The first, increasing sales velocity with our existing retail distribution. During the third quarter, same-store sales in our core beverage business increased 23%. This is particularly meaningful in an environment where consumers remain sensitive to grocery prices. Our products are earning their place in consumer shopping baskets, and this reflects the combination of freshness, taste, convenience, and value. Our Fresh 35 cold chain allows us to deliver products consistently while maintaining strict temperature standards. Importantly, Our operating model is designed to work within retailers' existing produce department infrastructure. It does not require retailers to invest in additional production equipment or significant additional labor. This is an important competitive advantage. Our focus remains on increasing sales within existing stores, expanding assortment, and building long-term retail partnerships. Our second growth engine is expanding retail distribution. The third quarter represented our first full quarter of Buddha Fresh distribution at Walmart. Our initial expansion, including 246 across nine states, this was an important milestone for Buddha Juice. At the beginning of 2026, our retail footprint was approximately 350 stores. With this expansion, that footprint increased to approximately 600 stores, and importantly, It introduced Buddha Fresh to consumers well beyond our original Texas market. We recognize that successful national distribution requires more than simply placing products in additional stores. It requires reliable execution, strong consumer demand, and disciplined management of the supply chain. And we are focused on all three. But we also recognize that substantial growth must ultimately be supported by strong store-level performance. Our longer-term objective is to build a national distribution network capable of bringing ultra-fresh products to consumers throughout the US. Our third growth engine is expanding ultra-fresh into additional product lines. During the second quarter, we acquired a small refrigerated dressing business in response to demand from an existing retail customer. The third quarter represented our first full quarter in this category. We believe refrigerated dressings are a natural extension of our existing business. They're ultra-fresh products, they are sold in the produce department, they serve many of the same consumers, and they can leverage our existing Fresh35 cold chain infrastructure. This is strategically important because it demonstrates that the operating capabilities we have developed are not limited to just juice. We believe Fresh 35 can become a broader platform for generally fresh refrigerated products. Today our dressings are manufactured through an interim co-packing arrangement. We are in the final stages of installing new production lines at our Dallas plant, and we believe to begin, and we expect to begin, transitioning production in-house during the first quarter of 2027. This will provide greater control over production, improve operating efficiency, and allow us to recover a meaningful portion of the co-packing costs currently affecting our margins. Over time, we see opportunities to expand refrigerated dressings under both private label programs and the Buddha Fresh brand. We are also evaluating other complementary ultra-fresh product lines. Today, our Dallas plant is the foundation of our current operations. Looking ahead, our national expansion strategy contemplates regional production facilities in both the eastern and western part of the U.S. Because our products have a relatively short shelf life, regional production will be an important component of our long-term strategy. But I want to emphasize one point. to let customer demand drive the capital investment. We're not interested in building new plants simply in anticipation of demand that has not yet materialized. We believe disciplined capital allocation is fundamental to building a sustainable and profitable business. We continue to see strong interest from retail in our ultra-fresh products, and we'll continue to work with existing partners on additional assortment opportunities. while engaging with prospective retail partners regarding future distribution. We will provide updates as these opportunities develop. Since our IPO earlier this year, we've also continued expanding our engagement within the investment community. We recently engaged MZ Group as our investor relations firm. We participated in Lake Street's Big Ten Conference in New York in September and the Eldeen Micro Conference in Los Angeles in October. And through the end of this year, we are also scheduled to participate in the Southwest Ideas Conference in Dallas, the StoneX Discovery One-on-One Conference in New York and the Wolf Research Winter Global Consumer Growth Conference via teleconference. We believe communicating our progress clearly and consistently is an important responsibility as a public traded company. To summarize, we believe the third quarter demonstrated several important things. Our existing products are generating strong consumer demand, our retail distribution is expanding, our ultra-fresh platform is extending into additional categories, and profitability is improving as the business grows. We are pursuing these opportunities from a position of financial strength. With that, I'd like to turn the floor over to our Chief Financial Officer, Clint Bowers, for a detailed review of our financial results. Clint.

Thank you, Horatio, and good afternoon, everyone. As Horatio discussed, we delivered the highest quarter in revenue in Buttigieg's history. Revenue for the third quarter of 2026 increased 64% to a record $5.2 million. Compared with $3.2 million in the third quarter of 2025. This increase reflects 23% same-store sales growth in our core beverage business, as well as expanded retail distribution and the contribution of our refrigerated dressings business. Gross profit increased 51% to $2.1 million compared with $1.4 million in the prior year period. Gross margin was 40.8% compared with 44.5% in the third quarter of 2025. Importantly, gross margin improved 417 basis points sequentially from the second quarter of 2026. This improvement reflected normalization of certain produce costs and operational efficiencies. The year-over-year margin difference primarily reflects interim co-packing costs associated with our refrigerated dressings business, and the increased cost of diesel fuel. As Horatio discussed, we expect to begin transitioning the dressings production into our Dallas plant during the first quarter of 2027. Operating expenses total 1.1 million, or 21.7% of revenue, compared with $0.5 million or 17% of revenue in the prior year period. The increase primarily reflected the additional cost of operating as a public company and non-cash stock-based compensation, as well as some increase in our distribution costs as a result of the elevated price of diesel fuel. Net income was approximately $866,000 or $0.07 per share which was essentially flat compared with the third quarter of 2025. However, it's important to note that the company did not record federal income tax expense or stock-based compensation expense in the third quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA increased 35% to $1.3 million representing approximately 25% of revenue compared with approximately $1 million or 30.5% of revenue in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA also increased approximately 80% sequentially from the second quarter. Now, turning to our balance sheet. Cash and cash equivalents totaled $19.3 million as of September 30, 2026. This compares with $18.8 million as of June 30, 2026 and $1.8 million as of December 31, 2025. The increase from year end was primarily attributable to the net proceeds from our January 2026 initial public offering. Cash flow from operations for the third quarter was approximately $710,000. As of September 30, 2026, the company had no outstanding debt, and our $3 million revolving credit facility also remained undrawn. Our balance sheet, together with the cash generated by our operations, provides a solid foundation to support our planned investments in production, additional retail distribution, and future growth opportunities. We remain committed to disciplined capital allocation and maintaining financial flexibility as the business expands. That concludes my financial review. I would now like to turn the call back over to Horatio for closing remarks. and then we'll open it up for Q&A. Horatio?

Thank you, Clint. As we look forward to the remainder of this year and into 2027, our priorities are clear. First, continue increasing velocity and expanding assortment of our existing retail partners. Second, pursue additional retail opportunities with consumer demand and economic support expansion. bring our refrigerated dressing production in-house during the first quarter of 2027 with the objective of improving operational efficiency and profitability. And fourth, continue investing in our production and distribution capabilities with financial discipline. It is particularly important we are pursuing these objectives from a position of financial strength. We are profitable and have been for the past four years We have $19.3 million in cash, no outstanding debt, and we have an established production plant with room for further growth. We're also benefiting from what we believe is an important shift in consumer preferences towards generally fresh and clean products. We intend to earn each additional retail relationship through our unique ultra-fresh product offer. Before concluding, I'd like to thank the entire Buddha Juice team for their dedication, hard work and commitment to the standards that define our company. And finally, to our shareholders, thank you for your confidence in Buddha Juice and our long-term vision. We remain committed to building a successful, profitable, sustainable company and creating long-term shareholder value. With that, Melissa, we'd be pleased to take any questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Your first question comes from the line of Ryan Myers with Lake Street Capital Markets. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Congrats on the outperformance in the quarter. So just, you know, starting with that, wondering if you can talk about, you know, what you saw in the third quarter that helped you drive the sales growth ahead of that initial greater than 40% expectation, and then maybe how we should think about that as we enter into the fourth quarter here.

Hello, Ryan. Thank you for the question. What happened, as you remember, in Q4 of last year, we had about 4% growth. In Q1, it was 17. Q2, it was like 27. And now we're at 64. What we're hearing and feeling here is really exciting momentum with our existing customers, with new product development, and the awareness of the ultra fresh category. So we're enjoying this, but we're not able to really give any guidance for what's happening now or going to happen. We want to talk more about our past and share with you the vision. So we're really happy with the performance. and as you know, the same store sales increase was really exciting because that shows year over year that the same customers are buying more and introducing their friends and families to the products.

Okay, got it. And then on the growth margin side, you know, that outperformed expectations as well, even with the dressing business and it was nice to see the sequential improvement there. Can you just sort of walk us through, you know, gross margins and what drove ultimately that improvement and then, you know, whatever you can share about kind of if this is the new sort of steady state gross margins or if there should be anything we should expect in the fourth quarter?

Well, I think again with the exciting momentum and volume You know, and then the model that we've created here, the more volume we have, the more efficiencies we have because then the cost per labor goes down and all this kind of adds to our margin. So we were thrilled with that margin improvement because, you know, we've still got very high, as you know, very high diesel costs like everyone else in the country. and, of course, we're still co-packing the dressing. So we were very happy with that result.

Is there anything else, Clint, you'd like to add? Yeah, I think, Ryan, what I would add is if you remember in quarter two, there was almost 300 basis points of margin just from the high cost of limes and produce and so that has you know for quarter three that was completely normalized so that that's a that's a big piece of it and that that really is the the biggest piece when you're coming off of from from quarter two into quarter three.

Okay got it and then lastly for me Horatio you briefly mentioned this but How should we think about the potential for building a new manufacturing facility potentially as we enter into next year and maybe what some of those conversations are like?

Yes. Well, as the momentum increases, and as you know, we have ongoing discussions with existing customers and with new customers that we're working on on the East Coast as well. So we're not, as we mentioned, we're not going to build anything until we're ready, until we actually have customers saying, yeah, we want to have Buddha Juice on the East Coast. So as soon as we announce that we're building on the East Coast, then we'll know that something's going on with those customers. Right now, we're really focused on what we're building up here. And as I said, we're on the tip of the iceberg in Texas. There is so much, so much going on here. and so much more business that the Buddha Juice could get in this extremely competitive but well populated market. So we're looking forward to expanding to the East Coast and we expect it will happen and hopefully next year.

Awesome. Great to hear it. We'll stay tuned. Thank you guys for taking my questions. Thank you, Ron.

Your next question comes from the line of George Kelly with Roth Capital Partners. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hey, everyone. Thanks for taking the questions. I wanted to start with just a couple on your dressings business. So first question is just what still needs to happen for your dressings line to begin production? And secondly, Do you already have placements secured for additional dressings beyond ranch?

Hello, George. Thanks for your question. We are very close. Now in the plant, we have pretty much all the equipment in place, everything. We just had our SQF audit, which is a very critical for manufacturing business, very critical. You get a good score. We got 97% out of 100, which is really good. And so we've had the ranch. That's been ordered as well. So we are close to being ready and expect to be on schedule for production at the beginning of the first quarter next year. So that's all good. As far as other products, We are definitely developing and have developed some wonderful new dressings. And we also are working with existing and new customers to our line of dressings as well. So we see that as definitely a business that's growing and going to be a nice part of what we're producing here in Dallas and our plant here. And then, of course, nationwide when we go nationwide.

OK. OK, that's helpful. And still same topic. Can you quantify the gross margin headwind in the quarter from your external manufacturing? Maybe that's hard to hear.

Yeah. Well, so last quarter, I think we communicated about 320 basis points for the co-packing. That improved a little bit, but it's still it's that's still probably a good. But that is still a good number. Yeah.

OK, OK. And just so I'm interpreting that right, that assumes that you internalize it or that assumes that there's just no range business altogether.

Oh, OK. Yes, that's a good question. That would mean no ranch. That would just be no ranch. Yeah. So it's the draft.

Yeah. OK. OK. And then second topic I wanted to cover is just Walmart. So now you've been there for several months. And I guess a couple of questions are, are you pleased with how it's been executed? Has there been any kind of issues with the rollout? And secondly, with the recent SKU changes, now you have those two products instead of the original SKU that was in. Should we assume that your velocities there will increase, or how should we think about the numbers coming from Walmart just after those few changes?

Okay, well, George, since you're mentioning the name of the customer, all I can say, of course, it's been well executed. It's been great. What more is there to say? We're very happy with our relationship and the way it's going, yeah?

And I mean on your end. I don't mean on their end. I don't know if there's any learnings coming out of it. Most of your business has been through a customer you've worked with for such a long time. So adding new customers, I just mean on your end, are there any kind of takeaways or learnings in these six months?

Yes, there are. And we have been working with Walmart and other customers away on how to maybe increase number of SKUs, number of stores, and looking at different things. A lot of what we're doing is proprietary and I really don't want to share, but I see this as definitely a nice growth opportunity for our company.

Okay, okay, fair enough. That's all I had. I appreciate it. Thank you, George. Thanks, George.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Horatio Lonsdale-Hands for closing remarks.

Thank you, Melissa. Well, I'd like to leave everyone with one final thought. Buddha Juice is building something that we believe is fundamentally different in the American food and beverage industry. We established ultra-fresh as a distinct category. A category supported by approach to freshness, our disciplined cold chain operations, and our commitment to making generally ultra-fresh products affordable to the mass market. Our third quarter results demonstrate meaningful progress, and we are well positioned to continue investing in the opportunities ahead. And we look forward to updating on our progress in the quarters ahead. And thank you all for listening. And Melissa, that concludes our call.

Thank you. This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.