How big is Common Ground?

Around 17 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Review: Common Ground

Common Ground is een pr- & communicatiebureau uit Gent, actief sinds 2012. Er werken ongeveer 17 mensen, uitgedrukt in voltijdse equivalenten.

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: € 1,31 mln gross margin, growth +8% against a sector median of +1,2%.

At or above sector pace

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

Common GroundSector median

EBITDA margin -3,8%, sector median 25,6%. Value-added coverage 0,96 (median 1,29). Value-added coverage sits in the sector-wide grey zone (0.95-1.15): context, not an alarm.

Loss-making

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 76.853

Median (2025) € 83.630

Against a payroll cost of € 79.750 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 54

Median (2025) € 50

24.017 hours worked, 1.413 per FTE. Against that sits € 56 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € -2 for premises, equipment, depreciation and profit.

Around 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: 2,5 months (median 12,2 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 285.139.

Thin buffer

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

Cash € 41.261. Liquidity ratio 1,64: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 29,9%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 94 days of supplier credit, sector median 71. The accounts were filed 132 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

1 red flag(s) (24m)

Signals in the last 24 months

Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Nov 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Oct 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Board change · 9 Jun 2026 · Staatsblad
Appointments or resignations on the board. Routine during growth, succession or a new partner. Ask about it when several changes follow each other closely.
Two consecutive loss-making years · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
Two financial years in a row closed at a loss. That can be an investment period, or a client that fell away. Ask what explains the pattern and what has changed since.
Sharp headcount decline · 31 Dec 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.
Thin buffer · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
Equity covers less than three months of payroll. A limited reserve, and at many smaller agencies the normal state of affairs. Ask how the agency absorbs a setback.
+ 3 older signals within 24m

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

Healthy working capital (current ratio 1,64)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 4,7× the capital contributed)
Turnover below the median (16,5%)

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	€ 1,22 mln	€ 1,40 mln+15,3%	€ 1,85 mln+31,8%	€ 1,21 mln-34,6%	€ 1,31 mln+8%
EBITDA	€ 409.170	€ 315.282	€ 541.241	€ -159.101	€ -50.156
EBITDA margin	33,6%	22,5%	29,2%	-13,1%	-3,8%
Staff
FTE	11,9	16,6+39,5%	18,6+12%	20,4+9,7%	17,0-16,7%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 102.386	€ 84.592	€ 99.520	€ 59.325	€ 76.853
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 67.911	€ 65.386	€ 70.337	€ 66.991	€ 79.750
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 316.961	€ 365.656	€ 515.544	€ 328.939	€ 285.139
Cash	€ 238.815	€ 170.036	€ 250.528	€ 238.495	€ 41.261
Liquidity ratio	1,46	1,66	1,53	1,27	1,64

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 12/05/2026. 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.

Coming soon

We're working on this part of the factsheet.

Coming soon

We're working on this part of the factsheet.

1

People 12 people mapped

Strategy weighs heavily here: 6 of 12 are strategists. Within that core, Strategie, Positionering and Contentstrategie stand out.

SM

Steven Michiels

Bestuurder

AD

Ann De Cannière

adviseur

DD

Diedert Debusscher

adviseur communicatie

EP

Elien Pièret

adviseur communicatie

ED

Elke De Neve

adviseur

GV

Glynn Van Nieuwenhuyse

adviseur

GN

Griet Noë

adviseur

ID

Inge Dorssers

Manager projectwerking

JL

Jole Leyseele

adviseur communicatie

JD

Jonathan De Mey

adviseur

KV

Kathleen Van de Werf

adviseur

KV

Kim Van den Eeckhout

adviseur communicatie

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

€ 79.750

+30% versus the median

Team composition

17,0 FTE

88% women
12% men

€ 79.750

Median PR- & communicatiebureau (2025) € 61.577All 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 2025

16,5%

Median for this type of agency (2025): 35,1%

Inflow 2025

9,4%

1,6 FTE in, 2,8 FTE out

Net team change

-1,2 FTE

20212022202320242025

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 2025: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.