Just two months after opening their Marshall Street business, the managers of Tasti-D-Lite and Insomnia Cookies have stepped down, citing internal conflicts with the company owners.

Adam Green and Michael Squires, both junior finance and entrepreneurship majors in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, stepped down as managers of Tasti-D-Lite

Tuesday morning, and discussed the situation with a lawyer.

‘It’s unfortunate something like this had to happen,’ Squires said. ‘We’ve parted to take care of ourselves and our reputation.’

The former managers said their attorney advised them not to comment on the reasons for the split, but said it would all be taken care of through litigation.

‘We know what our rights are,’ Squires said. ‘We have no relationship with anything in that store.’

Green and Squires managed the start-up of the company from construction through hiring to the current state of the operation.

‘We really helped to create a face for this company,’ Squires said.

Green said internal conflicts have been brewing for some time, but things ‘all came to a head’ recently.

Green and Squires called all of the employees Wednesday night so the employees could ‘plan and take precautions’ regarding things such as the work schedule.

‘We’re also responsible people,’ Green said. ‘We’re not going to leave people hanging.’

Squires said both he and Green became friends with many of the employees and also called to tell them they were sorry things had to happen this way.

‘You don’t lose friends with someone over business,’ Squires said.

Shawn Brooks, an employee of Tasti-D-Lite, said Green and Squires were easy-going and helpful as managers.

‘They were really good guys,’ he said. ‘I know (Green, Squires and the owners) had disagreements, but I wasn’t expecting that to happen. It is a little odd.’

Squires said, ‘I feel as if a lot of people put their faith and support into us. We’ve given it 110 percent between school and business.’

But despite their character, Brooks said he doesn’t think their departure will affect the business.

Brooks said the owners are in town looking for people to replace Squires and Green.

Squires and Green said they are already planning future business opportunities and could be at work on a new project soon.

Despite the split, the former managers said they respect the parent company they worked for and hope the best for their project.

‘We don’t know what they are going to do,’ Squires said. ‘We don’t care. It’s their company.’

Green said he will miss seeing the fruits of he and Squires’ labor the most about working at Tasti-D-Lite is seeing the fruits of he and Squires’ labor.

‘It was rewarding to come in every day and see what we put together,’ he said.

Squires said he would miss seeing customers leave satisfied most.

‘We really valued that,’ he said.

Published on January 27, 2005 at 12:00 pm