By KIRBY NEUMANN-REA
News editor

David Ryan, founder and CEO of Hood River Juice Company, has received the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 Pacific Northwest award in the Retail and Consumer products category.

“This award is not for me,” Ryan said Thursday. “It isn’t me; it’s everyone here: my employees, my wife, Carol Joy, and for my suppliers, the growers who have stood by us.”

Ryan was among a group of leading entrepreneurs selected by an independent judging panel made up of regional business, academic and community leaders. Ryan will also be considered for the Ernst & Young LLP Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 national award, which will be announced in Palm Springs in November.

“God has his hand in it,” Ryan said. “To use the farmer’s analogy: I get up every morning and I put my overalls on and get on the tractor, and plow for the next harvest to come.

“When you go through something like this, you’re totally transparent,” said Ryan. “They looked at everything about us.

“This award is about the fact that in the face of adversity we are willing to persevere.”

The company faced bankruptcy in 2005 and was hours from foreclosure when a financial bailout came through from Monarch Capital, with a 15 percent contribution from relatives.

New clientele have made it possible to both weather market challenges and keep pace with meeting the loan payoff, according to Ryan.

“It’s been our whole family,” pulling together, he said. “Carol Joy (his wife) has been phenomenal, and then the kids putting up with going to work early and coming home really late.”

The Hood River Juice Company was established in 1979, when Ryan’s mother borrowed an apple press from a neighbor. Ryan and his siblings began selling the fresh-pressed apple juice door to door.

After high school, Ryan expanded and began selling the juice to retail chains. He uses five presses to keep up with demand for their fruit juices.

Today the company employs 110 people in the Hood River area. This year it plans to expand into a 50,000 square foot facility, to be located at the Port of Hood River.

The award recipients were revealed June 26 at the Seattle Sheraton.

Greg Beams, Ernst & Young LLP Entrepreneur of the Year program director for the Pacific Northwest, said “The Entrepreneur of the Year award salutes their efforts in business excellence and community improvement. We would all do well to emulate their determination and enthusiasm.”