What is Catchafish specialised in?

Brand strategy & positioning, Marketing strategy, Brand identity & design, Website strategy & UX.

How big is Catchafish?

Around 4 full-time equivalents (financial year 2026).

Who are the clients of Catchafish?

Among others Chocolatier Vandenbulcke.

Review: Catchafish

Catchafish is een brandingbureau met thuisbasis in Gentbrugge, opgericht in 2017. Met ongeveer 3 VTE is dit een klein bureau. De focus ligt op strategie, branding & identiteit en ux/ui design. Sectoren waar het bureau vaak werkt: voedingsmerken/food brands. Namen die publiek aan dit bureau gelinkt worden: Chocolatier Vandenbulcke.

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

20222023202420252026

Latest year: € 290.426 gross margin, growth +50,8% against a sector median of +6,6%.

At or above sector pace

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20222023202420252026

CatchafishSector median

EBITDA margin 12,6%, sector median 32,2%. Value-added coverage 1,15 (median 1,29).

Below sector level

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 70.836

Median (2025) € 82.809

Against a payroll cost of € 61.457 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 (2025) € 48

7.159 hours worked, 1.746 per FTE. Against that sits € 35 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 5 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: 4,4 months (median 6,3 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 91.707.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 67.704. Liquidity ratio 1,44: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 39,3%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 65 days of supplier credit, sector median 68. The accounts were filed 196 days after closing; the legal deadline is seven months.

Pays and files on time

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

No serious signals

Signals in the last 24 months

Registered office moved · 18 Sep 2026 · Staatsblad
The registered office relocated. Usually just a new office.
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Aug 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Loss-making year · 31 Mar 2025 · NBB
One financial year closed at a loss. The size is not shown here: it can be a few thousand euros, a one-off settlement, or a deliberate investment. Ask the agency what was behind it.

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

Team grew (+20,6% FTE in the latest year)
Healthy working capital (current ratio 1,44)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 3,9× the capital contributed)
Comfortable cash position: 98 days of payroll
No departures in 2026

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, 2022 to 2026Result, staff and balance sheet

	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026
Result
Gross margin	€ 201.089	€ 128.180-36,3%	€ 230.524+79,8%	€ 192.649-16,4%	€ 290.426+50,8%
EBITDA	€ 76.129	€ 10.634	€ 39.861	€ -1.350	€ 36.653
EBITDA margin	37,9%	8,3%	17,3%	-0,7%	12,6%
Staff
FTE	2,9	2,5-13,8%	3,4+36%	3,40%	4,1+20,6%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 69.341	€ 51.272	€ 67.801	€ 56.661	€ 70.836
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 40.959	€ 46.706	€ 55.905	€ 56.885	€ 61.457
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 106.763	€ 107.350	€ 107.772	€ 89.542	€ 91.707
Cash	€ 84.396	€ 43.419	€ 64.946	€ 59.091	€ 67.704
Liquidity ratio	2,01	1,55	1,31	1,97	1,44

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 2026, filed on 13/10/2026. 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 2025: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.

What the agency actually does 4 services

Strategy & Insights

Brand strategy & positioning Marketing strategy

Branding & Design

Brand identity & design

Digital Experience & Tech

Website strategy & UX

Sector focus

Food & beverageFMCG

Publicly known clients

Chocolatier Vandenbulcke

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

1

People 7 people mapped

The heart of this team is creative: 4 of 7 profiles are makers. Within that core, Design and Illustratie stand out. A specialist, not a generalist: the expertise is narrow but deep.

JH

Jürgen Hûughe

Founding partner, Brand strategist & Creative director

SK

Stéphane Kimpe

Founding Partner, Brand strategist & Creative Director

HS

Hannelore Staelens

Office manager

JE

Justine Eelbode

Junior Branding & Packaging designer

L

Lenne

Junior branding & packaging designer

SC

Sarah Cocquyt

Branding & Packaging designer

WB

Wafa Baccaert

Senior brand & packaging designer, Illustrator

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

€ 61.457

+1% versus the median

Team composition

4,1 FTE

100% women
0% men

Training per FTE

0,0 h

Many agencies fill this field in incompletely.

€ 61.457

Median Brandingbureau (2025) € 60.980All agencies (2025) € 62.294

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 2026

0,0%

Median for this type of agency (2025): 38,9%

Inflow 2026

48,8%

2,0 FTE in, 0,0 FTE out

Net team change

+2,0 FTE

20222023202420252026

Source: annual accounts and social reports (NBB), collected by IKAg. Financial year 2026. Calculations by IKAg; an indication, not financial advice. Sector medians based on financial year 2025: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.