What is deBottomline specialised in?

Brand strategy & positioning, Marketing strategy, Brand identity & design, Campaign concepts & big ideas, Campaign execution, Advertising.

How big is deBottomline?

Around 12 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Review: deBottomline: Full Service Agency

Q: Who are the clients of deBottomline?

Among others Mercedes-Benz (Benelux, aftersales), Suzuki (en andere Astara-merken zoals MG, Isuzu, Maxus, KGM), Energie.be, Pioneer (car audio.

deBottomLine is al ruim tien jaar actief als full-service bureau uit Kontich. Met ongeveer 12 VTE is dit een middelgroot bureau. De focus ligt op creatie & reclame, strategie en branding & identiteit. De ervaring zit vooral in grotere kmo's in belgie.

Kernactiviteiten:
deBottomline helpt klanten tastbare resultaten neer te zetten via communicatie. De primaire rol van communicatie is volgens hen het opbouwen van vertrouwen. Hun aanpak is transparant, technologie- en platformonafhankelijk.
Soort klanten en gemiddelde klantgrootte:
Voorkeur voor grotere KMO’s met beslissingscapaciteit in België. Vermijden de top-100 adverteerders, maar willen communicatie toegankelijk maken voor iedereen.

deBottomline werkt met een team van 17 vaste medewerkers, waaronder:

1 Client Service Director / Partner
1 Client Service Director
1 Strategist / Partner
1 Strategist
1 Social Media Expert (organisch)
3 Creative Designers
1 Creative Director
1 Copywriter
6 Project Managers (full service)

Zelf omschreven cultuur

Partner
Snel & flexibel
Helemaal mee (& uitdagend)
Creatief
Resultaatgericht
Data-gedreven

Tech Stack
CMS-platformen: Webflow, Magento, HubSpot, WordPress, Umbraco, Shopify
Geen interne developmentactiviteiten
Strategische richting & toekomstplannen

Focus op verdere groei binnen hun klantensegment, zonder exponentieel te willen schalen.
Geen ambitie om een top-100 agency te worden; wel om kwalitatief werk te leveren binnen hun filosofie.
Aandacht voor langetermijnrelaties en diepgaande expertise binnen hun niche.

Referentieklanten: Mercedes-Benz (Benelux, aftersales), Suzuki (en andere Astara-merken zoals MG, Isuzu, Maxus, KGM), Energie.be, Pioneer (car audio, wereldwijd), Bobbejaanland (B2B), Ariston-Group (ATAG, Ariston & ELCO), Doctena, LUKOIL, Q8Oils (B2B, wereldwijd), SENSOA, TUI, Waasland Shopping Center
Gepercipieerde concurrenten: RCA, OnlyHumans, iO, June20
Werkt complementair samen: met gespecialiseerde agencies in o.a. PR.
Inspiratie: LDV: onafhankelijk, creatief en strategisch sterk
Ondernemingsnummer: BE0502.736.647
Gemiddelde klantgrootte: 100k

Who do they see as competitors?

Cartel Agency iO June20 OnlyHumans

As indicated by the agency itself.

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: € 1,01 mln gross margin, growth -7,8% against a sector median of +1,4%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

deBottomLineSector median

EBITDA margin 7,2%, sector median 21,9%. Value-added coverage 1,08 (median 1,24). 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

€ 82.456

Median (2024) € 72.161

Against a payroll cost of € 76.401 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Above the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 56

Median (2024) € 44

18.110 hours worked, 1.484 per FTE. Against that sits € 51 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 4 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: 9,9 months (median 5,6 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 770.408.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 493.471. Liquidity ratio 3,57: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 59,3%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 45 days of supplier credit, sector median 61. The accounts were filed 138 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

Points to ask about

Signals in the last 24 months

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.
Loss-making year · 31 Dec 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

Strong buffer: 9,9 months of payroll in equity
Healthy working capital (current ratio 3,57)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 38,4× the capital contributed)
Comfortable cash position: 193 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	€ 575.848	€ 689.554+19,7%	€ 1,53 mln+121,2%	€ 1,09 mln-28,5%	€ 1,01 mln-7,8%
EBITDA	€ 206.657	€ -51.781	€ 490.597	€ 121.368	€ 72.434
EBITDA margin	35,9%	-7,5%	32,2%	11,1%	7,2%
Staff
FTE	8,8	14,0+59,1%	15,8+12,9%	14,7-7%	12,2-17%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 65.437	€ 49.254	€ 96.551	€ 74.248	€ 82.456
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 41.639	€ 53.618	€ 65.286	€ 63.259	€ 76.401
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 504.841	€ 431.163	€ 753.727	€ 774.056	€ 770.408
Cash	€ 162.390	€ 91.674	€ 374.901	€ 353.271	€ 493.471
Liquidity ratio	4,37	1,39	2,98	3,58	3,57

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 18/05/2026. 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 5 Oct 2026. Sector medians based on financial year 2024: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.

What the agency actually does 5 services

Strategy & Insights

Brand strategy & positioning Marketing strategy

Branding & Design

Brand identity & design

Advertising & Campaigns

Campaign concepts & big ideas Campaign execution

Sector focus

Automotive & mobilityEnergy & utilitiesRetail & e-commerceHealth & pharmaB2B services

Publicly known clients

Doctena, Lukoil, Fries&Friends, TUI, Enwyse, Waasland Shopping, nxtpro, Start People, Pioneer, TENTE, Energie.be, KidsLife, ATAG Verwarming, Carglass, MG

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

1

People 12 people mapped

Strategy weighs heavily here: 7 of 12 are strategists. Within that core, Marketingstrategie, Contentstrategie and Merkstrategie stand out. The titles skew top-heavy: lots of seniority, few juniors — you're mostly buying experience.

AS

Anke Suys

Communicatiepartner

IS

Inez Schoenaers

Strategische partner

IB

Inge Bubbe

Ondersteunende partner

KL

Kelly Le Bruyn

Communicatiepartner

LM

Lauranne Melaerts

Communicatiepartner

LT

Lauren Tuytelaers

Communicatiepartner

LD

Lisa De Caerlé

Klantpartner

LH

Lisa Hermans

Designpartner

LL

Lotte Landuydt

Communicatiepartner

NV

Nathalie Vermoesen

Communicatiepartner

SV

Steven Van Dingenen

Partner

VD

Veerle Dauwe

Partner

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

€ 76.401

+34% versus the median

Team composition

12,2 FTE

€ 76.401

Median Full-service bureau (2024) € 57.083All 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 2025

54,1%

Median for this type of agency (2024): 32,8%

Inflow 2025

23,0%

2,8 FTE in, 6,6 FTE out

Net team change

-3,8 FTE

20212022202320242025

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.