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Denver's limousine industry is riding in the fast lane.
A strong economy has more people turning to limousines than ever before, including business people who once shunned the service as a wasteful expense.
Corporate customers now represent the industry's bread and butter in Denver, as they have for years in other large cities like New York and Chicago.
"You have to have the corporate customer to survive. You can't survive just on retail," said Gale McIntyre, general manager of Denver King Limousine Service Inc.
In three years, his company has grown from three vehicles to 20. Revenues are up 25 percent to 35 percent a year, thanks largely to corporate customers and a strong funeral business.
The shift over the last few years is fairly dramatic at many of the larger limousine companies, said Franci Ouzounis, president of the Limousine Association of Colorado and owner of White Dove Limousine.
Gene Cookenboo, owner of Presidential Limousine, the city's largest limo company, said that in 1991 only 30 percent of...