Chicken Poop creator sells business; new owners in dispute over operations

In April, Chicken Poop creator Jamie Tabor quietly sold the company she founded in 2001, and now the people who purchased the business are in a dispute over how to operate it.

Tabor didn’t return requests for comment, but the new owners of the company did.

One of those owners is Michael Schmidt, Tabor’s brother-in-law, who said he’s been running the company since about 2006.

The others are Melad Stephan, who owns Sabor Latin Bar & Grille , and his wife, Deanna.

The Stephans filed a lawsuit against Schmidt in Sedgwick County District Court on June 18 alleging that Schmidt “was unwilling, or unable, to run the business in a professional manner, leaving the company in dire financial straits.”

The case was dismissed last week. Recently, the parties agreed to sell their building at 611 S. St. Francis.

Schmidt and Melad Stephan each own 30% of the business, and Deanna Stephan owns 40%.

“One of the many sad things is Melad used to be one of my closest friends,” Schmidt said.

Among other disagreements, the parties don’t agree on who approached whom about buying the business together.

Regardless, Deanna Stephan said she was interested in the opportunity to take over Tabor’s well-known brand.

“I honestly was quite surprised myself that she would sell it,” Deanna Stephan said. “It has a really niche name that draws people to it. . . . I always wondered kind of why it hadn’t made it on a different level.”

Tabor always explained that the whimsical Chicken Poop name came from something her grandfather used to say: “If ya got dry lips, put chicken poop on ’em so you won’t lick ’em!”

Deanna Stephan said the balm and its related products, such as shimmers and a mint-scented balm , are great and have much potential.

Though it has about 8,000 retail customers, from places such as Walgreens and Tractor Supply to mom-and-pop shops, Deanna Stephan said, “What is holding this back from being something really big? Time will tell, I think. . . . There’s some missed marketing, maybe.”

She said she thought perhaps Tabor didn’t want a huge company.

Schmidt said his sister-in-law and her husband, Eric, are both artists and wanted to pursue ventures related to those interests while spending more time with their children.

He said Tabor is one of the most creative people he’s ever known, but when it comes to the stores Chicken Poop is in, “Basically, I’m the one that got into almost everything that we’re in today.”

Schmidt said the problems were immediate when Deanna Stephan joined the business.

He said that she said, “Everything needs to be in my name. I’m the number-one person on the contact list.’ It makes it very difficult because all of these people have dealt with me for almost two decades.”

Deanna Stephan said that wasn’t the situation. She said they agreed on making changes, something she said Schmidt had said he wanted, before going into business together.

“I wanted transparency in everything that was going on in the company.”

She said she was trying to put “a system in place so that everyone knows what’s going on.”

Deanna Stephan said Schmidt was supposed to do sales while she “was going to go in and put everything in order and do those checks and balances and get the inventory going.”

She said she wants to streamline the business and make it more of an e-commerce company.

Schmidt said he’s under the impression that he’s fired.

“He was released of his operational duties, and he was told that,” Deanna Stephan said.

Though she said she was trying to make the business more efficient, Schmidt said some things she did had the opposite effect.

He said he kept hearing from the Stephans, “ ‘Well, that’s how the restaurant is run. This is what the restaurant does.’ That was where Melad and my relationship went south. . . . After about six weeks, I just couldn’t take it anymore. Deanna screaming, telling she’s going to sue everybody.”

Deanna Stephan said a lot of what Schmidt is saying is inaccurate.

“No one was screaming at him. I don’t know what he is talking about.”

Many times, she said, Schmidt brought up the restaurant, but she said no one else did.

Deanna Stephan said she has nothing bad to say about Schmidt or anyone else.

“On my end, there is no animosity,” she said. “I’m just moving forward daily.”

She said “the e-commerce platform is really a great place for this type of product.”

Also, she said, “There’s so much with the internet now and these influencers.”

Deanna Stephan said she hopes to meet Tabor.

“I am very thankful for Jamie and all the work that she has done.”

Deanna Stephan said she hopes to do well with the company and create “something (Tabor) can still be proud of.”

There is a contract on the approximately 7,000-square-foot warehouse on St. Francis, but Schmidt said he’s not sure what will happen when it sells.

“I’m not even allowed in the building. I’m not allowed to get my personal possessions.”

He said even so, “They would still call me and ask me how to do stuff. . . . I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ”

Schmidt said he put a lot into the business over the years, sometimes working 80-hour weeks, and he said he’d like to go back.

“All I want is to go back doing what I was doing.”

Several days after initial interviews for this story, Schmidt said, “If she is not leaving, then I would like to be bought out of my 30%, and I just don’t think they’re going to give me a dime for it.”

Schmidt said a lawyer is sending the Stephans a letter about a potential buyout.

Via text, Deanna Stephan said, “I suppose we would listen to an offer he has to make.”