A Rugby business, specializing in customer food orders, will cease operations later this spring along with three other offices across the state.

Verety LLC recently announced it was going to close its storefront operations in Rugby and Hazen, Steele and Wishek. The decision will mean affect about 400 employees across the state.

Ken Cordes, director of business development for Verety LLC, said due the tough economic climate the company could not get enough customers to keep all its offices operating.

Verety is best known as the company contracted by McDonald’s restaurants to take fast food drive-up orders for their customers. One of the business’s selling points to potential employees was the ability to work from home.

It opened its Rugby site in the summer of 2005 in the former Opie’s Billiard Parlor along 2nd St. S.W. downtown. Just how many local workers will be affected by the closing is not known. In February of 2007, it was reported just over 40 were working in-house as well as from home.

News of Verety’s impending closing began being circulating around town last week. A call was placed to the Rugby Area Job Development Authority by an unidentified employee notifying the office of the closing.

Brenda Foster, JDA executive director, visited late last week with an official in the state’s commerce department who also spoke with Verety representatives. She learned the affected employees were given a 60-day notice. While four offices will be closed later this spring, the Fargo location will remain open.

The company did not receive any state or local funding incentives to open offices here, according to Foster.

The decision is a tough blow for Rugby and those other communities affected, she said.