Limo firm seeks to stretch good times

Ambassador Limo owner Ken Lucci expects a big 2012, buoyed by an expansion and a pair of political conventions.

On the latter, Lucci tells Coffee Talk the Clearwater-based firm already secured $1.5 million in business from the upcoming political party conventions: The Republican Party gathering in Tampa in August, and the Democratic Party soiree in Charlotte in early September. Says Lucci: “Business has been phenomenal.”

Lucci was approached to bid for business for the Democratic Party Convention on word-of-mouth, after the firm won several transportation contracts connected to the four-day GOP convention. He attributes the recent victories to a strategy of hyper-detailed customer service.

“We haven't played the price game,” says Lucci. “We have upped the service and professionalism and vehicles, and it has really paid off.”

Lucci founded Ambassador Limo in 2007. The firm has since grown rapidly, from $1.2 million in sales in 2008 to $3.1 million in 2009 to $4.5 million in 2011. The firm maintains a fleet of more than 40 vehicles.

That fleet will help fuel the company's expansion, to provide service to the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport. Lucci says he has heard for more than a year from clients and perspective customers about an increased need for service to Sarasota-Bradenton. “We feel we would like to go down the coast,” Lucci says. “We feel like Sarasota is a pretty big market for us.”