What is GBL Studio specialised in?

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

How big is GBL Studio?

Around 11 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Review: GBL Studio

Q: Who are the clients of GBL Studio?

Among others Bellewaerde, Bulex, Cauwelier, Delbar, Projinit, Ukio, Bariseau-Mottrie, Vanheede Environment Group, EEG, SYNQ, NOQ NOQ, Franke, Isolteam.

GBL Studio is een brandingbureau uit Heule, actief sinds 1990. De bezetting ligt rond 11 VTE. Ze werken rond strategie, branding & identiteit en creatie & reclame. Sectoren waar het bureau vaak werkt: west-vlaamse kmo's (regio kortrijk).

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: € 1,13 mln gross margin, growth -9,7% against a sector median of +6,6%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

GBL StudioSector median

EBITDA margin 32,3%, sector median 32,2%. Value-added coverage 1,51 (median 1,29).

Healthy margin

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 107.020

Median (2025) € 82.809

Against a payroll cost of € 67.448 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Above the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 81

Median (2025) € 48

14.000 hours worked, 1.321 per FTE. Against that sits € 51 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 30 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: 12,7 months (median 6,3 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 756.093.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 215.264. Liquidity ratio 1,04: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 20,5%.

Tightly covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 386 days of supplier credit, sector median 68. The accounts were filed 180 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 Sep 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Aug 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Aug 2026 · Google Autocomplete
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.
Sharp headcount decline · 31 Dec 2024 · 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

EBITDA margin above the sector median (32,3%)
Strong buffer: 12,7 months of payroll in equity
Value-added per euro of payroll above the sector median (1,51)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 39,7× the capital contributed)
Comfortable cash position: 110 days of payroll
Turnover below the median (9,4%)

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	€ 1,25 mln	€ 1,35 mln+7,8%	€ 1,37 mln+1,6%	€ 1,26 mln-8,7%	€ 1,13 mln-9,7%
EBITDA	€ 391.610	€ 466.070	€ 523.164	€ 439.189	€ 366.442
EBITDA margin	31,2%	34,5%	38,1%	35%	32,3%
Staff
FTE	14,3	14,1-1,4%	14,10%	11,6-17,7%	10,6-8,6%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 87.755	€ 95.919	€ 97.496	€ 108.246	€ 107.020
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 55.852	€ 59.085	€ 65.854	€ 67.381	€ 67.448
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 652.343	€ 750.093	€ 831.396	€ 855.937	€ 756.093
Cash	€ 284.154	€ 482.481	€ 283.191	€ 171.136	€ 215.264
Liquidity ratio	1,04	1,05	1,08	1,10	1,04

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 29/06/2026. 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 5 services

Strategy & Insights

Brand strategy & positioning Marketing strategy

Branding & Design

Brand identity & design

Advertising & Campaigns

Campaign concepts & big ideas Campaign execution

Sector focus

Media & entertainmentB2B servicesFashion & lifestyle

Publicly known clients

Bellewaerde, Bulex, Cauwelier, Delbar, Projinit, Ukio, Bariseau-Mottrie, Vanheede Environment Group, EEG, SYNQ, NOQ NOQ, Franke, Isolteam

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

1

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

€ 67.448

+11% versus the median

Team composition

10,6 FTE

81% women
19% men

€ 67.448

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.

2

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

9,4%

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

Inflow 2025

9,4%

1,0 FTE in, 1,0 FTE out

Net team change

0,0 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.