What is Big Trees specialised in?

Packaging design, Campaign concepts & big ideas, Campaign execution, Influencer & creator marketing, Organic social content, Social strategy & platform mix.

How big is Big Trees?

Around 4 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Review: Big Trees

Q: Who are the clients of Big Trees?

Among others Argenta, Euroconsumers, Stad Gent, DCM, EVA vzw, Reynaers Aluminium, Unilin, Culinor, Orac, Vercom, Beddeleem, Vastgoed Degroote, Oscare, Testaankoop, POM Oost-Vlaanderen.

Sinds 2004 is Big Trees actief als brandingbureau uit Gent. Het team telt ongeveer 4 medewerkers (VTE). Het bureau combineert strategie, branding & identiteit, content & copy en pr & communicatie. Sectoren waar het bureau vaak werkt: duurzame merken en organisaties, impactgedreven ondernemingen en social profit.

1

How this agency makes money

Revenue, margin and what an hour of work brings in. Everything on the earning side sits together here.

Revenue trendgross margin per financial year

20212022202320242025

Latest year: € 268.621 gross margin, growth +4% against a sector median of +6,6%.

Growing slower than the sector

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

Big TreesSector median

EBITDA margin 5,6%, sector median 32,2%. Value-added coverage 1,06 (median 1,29). Value-added coverage sits in the sector-wide grey zone (0.95-1.15): context, not an alarm.

Below sector level

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 61.050

Median (2024) € 78.994

Against a payroll cost of € 55.212 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 41

Median (2024) € 47

6.612 hours worked, 1.503 per FTE. Against that sits € 37 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 4 for premises, equipment, depreciation and profit.

Below the median

No hourly rate follows from this. Gross margin is already net of services and sundry goods, which mixes rebilled production with the agency's own overhead, and the accounts do not say how many hours were billable. Deriving a rate from this systematically understates it.

2

Can the agency take a hit

Buffer, cash position and payment behaviour side by side, so you can see where they disagree.

Bufferequity in months of payroll

Buffer: 3,2 months (median 6,3 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 65.101.

Adequate buffer

Cash positionAvailable cash, and whether it covers short-term debt

Cash € 38.926. Liquidity ratio 1,28: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 26,7%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 142 days of supplier credit, sector median 74. The accounts were filed 211 days after closing; the legal deadline is seven months.

Pays slower than average

3

Signals and strengths

Events from the CBE and the Official Gazette over the past 24 months, plus positive markers derived from the figures.

Continuity

Points to ask about

Signals in the last 24 months

Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Nov 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Oct 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Sep 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Aug 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Aug 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Sharp headcount decline · 30 Sep 2025 · NBB
Average headcount fell by 15% or more in a year. That can be contraction, and just as easily a deliberate choice for fewer but more experienced people. Ask who left and who came in their place.

Click a signal for a plain-language explanation. Each signal is a fact from a public source, without the agency's own context. Best to ask them directly.

What this agency does well

Margin per hour worked rose 2 years in a row
Healthy working capital (current ratio 1,28)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 20,4× the capital contributed)

Each point is a fact from the filed annual accounts, measured against the same thresholds and sector medians as the signals above.

4

All the figures

Reference material, not a starting point. Expand it if you want to read the series yourself.

5 financial years, 2021 to 2025Result, staff and balance sheet

	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Result
Gross margin	€ 207.208	€ 331.576+60%	€ 304.226-8,2%	€ 258.200-15,1%	€ 268.621+4%
EBITDA	€ -46.886	€ 21.134	€ 19.158	€ 10.659	€ 15.012
EBITDA margin	-22,6%	6,4%	6,3%	4,1%	5,6%
Staff
FTE	4,6	5,8+26,1%	5,9+1,7%	5,2-11,9%	4,4-15,4%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 45.045	€ 57.168	€ 51.564	€ 49.654	€ 61.050
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 55.059	€ 53.080	€ 47.647	€ 45.245	€ 55.212
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 58.265	€ 59.156	€ 61.855	€ 64.102	€ 65.101
Cash	€ 31.237	€ 23.066	€ 61.405	€ 36.084	€ 38.926
Liquidity ratio	1,26	1,45	1,26	1,19	1,28

Payroll cost per FTE comes from the social report where available, otherwise from the Remuneration line. Both are gross costs including employer contributions.

What this factsheet does not know

How good the work is. Figures do not measure creativity, strategy or chemistry.
How the client portfolio is spread. Concentration is not in the accounts.
Freelancers and subcontractors are not in the FTE figures. An agency with 40 staff may in practice run with 70 people.
The figures cover financial year 2025, filed on 29/04/2026. At a fast-moving agency reality today may differ.

Based on publicly filed annual accounts (NBB) and official records (CBE, Belgian Official Gazette). An indication, not financial advice. Sector medians calculated on 2 Nov 2026. Sector medians based on financial year 2024: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.

What the agency actually does 15 services

Branding & Design

Packaging design

Advertising & Campaigns

Campaign concepts & big ideas Campaign execution

Social, Influencer & Community

Influencer & creator marketing Organic social content Social strategy & platform mix

CRM, Email & Loyalty

CRM & lifecycle strategy Direct marketing & lead management Marketing automation

PR & Reputation

Corporate communication PR strategy & media relations

Employer Brand & Internal

Internal communication

Events, Sponsoring & Activation

Brand activation (incl. guerrilla) Events & experiences Sponsorship & partnerships

Sector focus

Public sector & governmentFinance & insuranceReal estate & constructionFood & beverageAutomotive & mobility

Publicly known clients

Argenta, Euroconsumers, Stad Gent, DCM, EVA vzw, Reynaers Aluminium, Unilin, Culinor, Orac, Vercom, Beddeleem, Vastgoed Degroote, Oscare, Testaankoop, POM Oost-Vlaanderen

Based on IKAg research and public sources. Incomplete or outdated? Let us know.

1

People 9 people mapped

A broad team with no clear centre of gravity — creative, account & project and data carry roughly equal weight. The titles skew top-heavy: lots of seniority, few juniors — you're mostly buying experience. One strategist on board — enough to hold the direction, not to fill meetings.

BZ

Bouke Zoete

Creative Director

ES

Eva Schockaert

Account manager

RR

Ruben Reners

Carbon Accounting Expert

SD

Stijn Desplenter

Account manager

WV

Wannes van Giel

CEO

ED

Eva De Keyser

duurzaamheidsstrateeg

JG

Jocelijn Geurts

VSME / Ecovadis specialist

KV

Kyle Vanlerberghe

Digital Marketeer

SP

Suzanne Petersen

Grafisch Vormgever

Based on public profiles. Something wrong? Let us know.

2

Seniors or juniors?

Payroll cost per FTE is the best public proxy for a team's experience level. Higher is not automatically better, but it says something about who sits at the table.

Payroll cost per FTE

€ 55.212

-4% versus the median

Team composition

4,4 FTE

43% women
57% men

€ 55.212

Median Brandingbureau (2024) € 57.393All agencies (2024) € 59.021

Read with care. Directors and partners invoicing through a management company are not in the payroll cost. At small agencies this skews the picture downwards considerably.

3

Will your team stay?

Inflow and outflow from the social report. This series only counts people on the payroll: freelancers who invoice do not appear in it. A low figure therefore means two very different things, a stable permanent team or a small core with heavy outsourcing. A high figure usually points to short contracts. Compare only within the same type of agency.

Exits 2021

60,9%

Median for this type of agency (2024): 33,9%

Inflow 2021

65,2%

3,0 FTE in, 2,8 FTE out

Net team change

+0,2 FTE

20212022202320242025

Figures for financial year 2021: in 2025 this agency published no inflow or outflow.

Exits are clearly above what is usual for this type of agency. That may reflect project-based staffing, but it is a reason to ask in the pitch how much of the proposed team was already here two years ago, and to contractually fix your permanent contacts.

Source: annual accounts and social reports (NBB), collected by IKAg. Financial year 2025. Calculations by IKAg; an indication, not financial advice. Sector medians based on financial year 2024: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.