Bagel chainÕs verbal threats

Bruegger˜s Bagels˜ recent departure from the city has left its closest competing neighbor, Rocky Mountain Bagel Works, heaving sighs of relief and shouting cheers of victory. It seems the national chain was none too subtle about its arrival and its intention to do away with its Campus West competitor.
Rocky Mountain Bagels employee Jessica Folley reports that the big-time bagel guys paid a visit to the home-grown Rocky Mountain shop and offered to buy them out, lox, stock and bagels.
"They told us we might as well sell because they were going to put us out of business anyway," Folley said. "Before they built their building, they would come over and lay their blueprints on our tables and ask us what we put in our muffins."
Folley attributes her underdog employer˜s triumph over the out-of-town interlopers to Colorado State University-student loyalty, great customer-appreciation coupons and, she added, "Quite frankly, we have better bagels."n n nA perusal of year-end results for Colorado stocks — published in the Rocky Mountain News — left us wide-Eyed at EFTC Corp.˜s proximity to the top of the list. The electronic-manufacturing company was ranked fifth out of 184 companies, with a year-end percentage total return of 251.40 percent — comparable to the company˜s revenue growth during the past couple of years.
Other local companies cited on on the list included Concepts Direct Inc., ranked 15th; Atrix Laboratories Inc. in the 58th spot; followed closely by Hach Co. at 61; and Avert Inc. at 88.
That˜s not the only thing happening at EFTC. The company recently relocated its headquarters from Greeley to Denver to be closer to a larger pool of computer programmers and information-technology experts.
That makes three companies — EFTC, StarTek Inc. and Symbios Inc. — that have relocated or plan to relocate their corporate headquarters from Northern Colorado to Denver.n n nIs the mysterious disease killing hundreds of people and livestock in Kenya a form of anthrax? The answer may be found in Fort Collins.
The Eye spied a recent report describing symptoms plaguing the people and animals of Africa. It seems the tentative anthrax diagnosis, evidenced by internal bleeding, cannot be verified at the site until Kenyan laboratories receive medical supplies needed to test specimens for the disease. In the meantime, specimens have been shipped to the National Institute of Virology in Johannesburg, South Africa, and to U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and Fort Collins.
Experts — apparently we have our share of them — will try to pinpoint the cause of disease that local reports say has killed up to 245 people and hundreds of camels, goats and sheep in the flooded villages of Somalia and Kenya.n n nWord is, Jackson˜s Hole Restaurant is Eyeing Fort Collins as a possible site for one of its trendy restaurants. An official at the chain˜s corporate office in Denver was succinct in his summary of the situation: "Would we like to be in Fort Collins, yes. Have we found a location we can afford? No."
Apparently, bringing a new restaurant to the Fort has become a potentially profitable endeavor, as well as a pricey one.n n nStaffers at the Loveland-based Duke Communications gave company CEO David Duke a tool belt for Christmas — an appropriate gift since the company˜s employees have decided to pitch in together and construct a house for Habitat for Humanity.