Where is Czar located?

In Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Belgium.

What is Czar specialised in?

Campaign concepts & big ideas, Campaign execution, Video production.

Around 6 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Review: Czar

Q: Who are the clients of Czar?

Among others AXE, IKEA, BNP, XBOX, McDonald's, De Lijn, TNT, Samsonite, Head & Shoulders, Pink Ribbon, De Morgen, Studio Brussel, KBC, P&V insurance, Skoda.

Sinds 1999 is Czar actief als productiehuis uit Sint-Jans-Molenbeek. Op de loonlijst staan ongeveer 6 voltijdse equivalenten. Het aanbod is gericht op video & productie en creatie & reclame. Sectoren waar het bureau vaak werkt: reclamebureaus en merken (commercials) en film/tv-industrie.

Awards

2× Cannes Lions

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: € 537.145 gross margin, growth +2% against a sector median of +11,2%.

Growing slower than the sector

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

CzarSector median

EBITDA margin 12,4%, sector median 41,6%. Value-added coverage 1,14 (median 1,44). 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

€ 89.524

Median (2024) € 71.844

Against a payroll cost of € 77.430 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Above the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 52

Median (2024) € 44

10.376 hours worked, 1.729 per FTE. Against that sits € 45 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 7 for premises, equipment, depreciation and profit.

Above 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: 10,0 months (median 9,2 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 388.026.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 209.122. Liquidity ratio 1,18: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 14,1%.

Tightly covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 305 days of supplier credit, sector median 43. The accounts were filed 190 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

No serious signals

Signals in the last 24 months

Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Aug 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Board change · 19 Dec 2025 · 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.

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

Strong buffer: 10,0 months of payroll in equity
Stable team (no meaningful FTE loss)
Margin per hour worked rose 3 years in a row
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 3,9× the capital contributed)
Comfortable cash position: 164 days of payroll

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	€ 800.207	€ 491.558-38,6%	€ 472.378-3,9%	€ 526.385+11,4%	€ 537.145+2%
EBITDA	€ 305.001	€ 35.544	€ -2.363	€ 47.784	€ 66.698
EBITDA margin	38,1%	7,2%	-0,5%	9,1%	12,4%
Staff
FTE	7,0	7,8+11,4%	6,6-15,4%	6,0-9,1%	6,00%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 114.315	€ 63.020	€ 71.572	€ 87.731	€ 89.524
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 70.294	€ 57.934	€ 71.539	€ 77.582	€ 77.430
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 403.482	€ 401.320	€ 375.995	€ 378.910	€ 388.026
Cash	€ 179.947	€ 576.852	€ 507.797	€ 112.468	€ 209.122
Liquidity ratio	1,35	1,55	1,48	1,72	1,18

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 09/07/2026. 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 21 Sep 2026. Sector medians based on financial year 2024: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.

What the agency actually does 3 services

Advertising & Campaigns

Campaign concepts & big ideas Campaign execution

Content & Production

Video production

Sector focus

FMCGFinance & insuranceMedia & entertainmentFood & beverageAutomotive & mobility

Publicly known clients

AXE, IKEA, BNP, XBOX, McDonald's, De Lijn, TNT, Samsonite, Head & Shoulders, Pink Ribbon, De Morgen, Studio Brussel, KBC, P&V insurance, Skoda

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

1

People 1 people mapped

ID

Ingrid Deuss

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

€ 77.430

+52% versus the median

Team composition

6,0 FTE

50% women
50% men

€ 77.430

Median Productiehuis (2024) € 51.086All agencies (2024) € 59.045

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 2024

16,7%

Median for this type of agency (2024): 30,6%

Inflow 2024

16,7%

1,0 FTE in, 1,0 FTE out

Net team change

0,0 FTE

20212022202320242025

Figures for financial year 2024: in 2025 this agency published no inflow or outflow.

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.

Award-winning work 2 award(s)

2025

Cannes Lions BronzeFilm Lion · “Dog / Axe” · source ↗

2024

Cannes Lions GoldFilm Lion · “Robbery / Lynx (Axe)” · source ↗

As published by the organising award shows, collected by IKAg.