The Hindu Business Line : Canco MD Ramesh Narayan winds down agency

Ramesh Narayan, Managing Director of Canco Advertising Pvt Ltd, has decided to bid goodbye to the advertising industry. In the process of winding down his 23-year-old ad agency, Mr Narayan told Business Line that he would retain his links with the industry in an advisory capacity but would actively pursue his other interests related to NGOs and writing.

Mr Narayan said that he did not want to sell his agency as he had run it in a particular way all through his career. Canco, which had billings of Rs 25 crore in the last fiscal, has resigned all its long-time key accounts such as HDFC, ONGC, Union Bank and BPCL. The agency also ensured that that almost all its staff of about 50 people found jobs either in the ad industry or outside it.

During his career, Mr Narayan has been at the helm of professional bodies involved in advertising and related industries such as the Advertising Agencies' Association of India and Ad Club Bombay, and was also associated with the Advertising Council of India, which organised AdAsia 2003, Asian Federation of Advertising Associations, the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the National Readership Survey Council and the India chapter of the International Advertising Association.

As Mr Narayan said, "I had promised myself that at the age of 50 I would sincerely introspect on my professional life." As he had reached that landmark, Mr Narayan said, it was time to draw the curtains on his 23 years in the advertising business.