What is LIVING STONE specialised in?

Brand strategy & positioning, Marketing strategy, Brand identity & design, Content strategy & editorial, Copywriting & long-form content, Corporate communication.

How big is LIVING STONE?

Around 4 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Which sectors does LIVING STONE work for?

Technology & software, Healthcare & pharma.

Review: LIVING STONE: full service voor healthcare & engineering

Q: Who are the clients of LIVING STONE?

Among others ABB, Atlas Copco, Becton Dickinson, Biomedical Data Solutions, CSL Behring, Revive.

LIVING STONE: full service voor healthcare & engineering

Living Stone is een brandingbureau uit Munkzwalm, actief sinds 1992. De bezetting ligt rond 4 VTE. Ze werken rond strategie, branding & identiteit, content & copy en pr & communicatie. De ervaring zit vooral in healthcare/medtech, engineering/technologie en it.

Expertise
LIVING STONE helpt organisaties, variërend van start-ups & scale-ups tot mature bedrijven in de gezondheidszorg, biowetenschappen, biotech en technologie/ engineering, om hun marketingactiviteiten te versnellen en organisatiegroei te stimuleren.
Expertises
Merk strategie, Website, SEO, Campaign, Copywriting, Social Media content, Motion design, Content strategie, Brand design, Research, Digital strategy, Print
Klanten
B2B. Enkel healthcare & engineering. In healthcare ook "2C" cfr patiëntencommunicatie. We werken graag voor scale-ups bij hun internationalisering / opzetten contentstrategie ... én voor multinationals waar we 360° plannen uitwerken en content creëren. Content is voor ons niet enkel het geschreven woord, maar ook video, podcasts, animaties, explainer video's ...
Team
LIVING STONE werkt met een team van 12-tal medewerkers en vaste freelancers:

3 creatives (online, offline, video/animation, podcasts)
a core of 3 copywriters but as we are working in many languages we also have a large network of native speakers
2 medical writers
4 in PM including management

Zelf omschreven cultuur:

Open en transparant, empathisch, betrouwbaar

Referentieklanten: ABB, Atlas Copco, Becton Dickinson, Biomedical Data Solutions, CSL Behring, Revive
Tech stack: Hubspot, Wordpress
Gepercipieerde concurrenten: Buitenlandse agencies bij onze multinationals (UK, NL, DE); lokaal afhankelijk van de noden varieert dit van freelancers tot kleine agencies tot de big ones zoals BBDO.
Inspiratie: BBC, Gravity global
Ondernemingsnummer: BE0446.629.867
Gemiddelde klantgrootte: 100k

Partnerships

HubSpot Partner

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: € 323.288 gross margin, growth +48,5% against a sector median of +6,6%.

At or above sector pace

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

Living StoneSector median

EBITDA margin 14,3%, sector median 32,2%. Value-added coverage 1,17 (median 1,29).

Below sector level

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 80.822

Median (2025) € 82.809

Against a payroll cost of € 66.748 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Around the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 47

Median (2025) € 48

6.894 hours worked, 1.724 per FTE. Against that sits € 39 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 8 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: 4,4 months (median 6,3 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 98.694.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 57.332. Liquidity ratio 1,03: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 20%.

Tightly covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 155 days of supplier credit, sector median 68. The accounts were filed 169 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 Oct 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Oct 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Sep 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Aug 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Sharp drop in equity · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
The financial reserve shrank by more than 30% over two financial years. A dividend, buying out a partner and a loss-making year all look the same here. Ask which of the three it was.
+ 1 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

Profitable in every one of the last 5 years
Team grew (+60,0% FTE in the latest year)
Comfortable cash position: 78 days of payroll
Turnover below the median (25,0%)

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	€ 257.219	€ 300.324+16,8%	€ 325.889+8,5%	€ 217.686-33,2%	€ 323.288+48,5%
EBITDA	€ 38.097	€ 27.330	€ 75.012	€ 46.946	€ 46.083
EBITDA margin	14,8%	9,1%	23%	21,6%	14,3%
Staff
FTE	3,3	3,7+12,1%	3,6-2,7%	2,5-30,6%	4,0+60%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 77.945	€ 81.169	€ 90.525	€ 87.074	€ 80.822
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 66.299	€ 73.693	€ 69.598	€ 68.175	€ 66.748
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 242.365	€ 263.687	€ 319.251	€ 350.228	€ 98.694
Cash	€ 112.242	€ 47.360	€ 67.738	€ 120.932	€ 57.332
Liquidity ratio	1,72	1,66	1,79	1,80	1,03

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 18/06/2026. 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 7 services

Strategy & Insights

Brand strategy & positioning Marketing strategy

Branding & Design

Brand identity & design

Content & Production

Content strategy & editorial Copywriting & long-form content

PR & Reputation

Corporate communication PR strategy & media relations

Sector focus

Healthcare/medtechengineering/technologieIT

From our own research. The agency hasn't listed its sectors yet.

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

€ 66.748

+10% versus the median

Team composition

4,0 FTE

50% women
50% men

€ 66.748

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

25,0%

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

Inflow 2025

75,0%

3,0 FTE in, 1,0 FTE out

Net team change

+2,0 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.

Official partnerships 1 badge(s)

HubSpot: Partner1 of 28 Belgian partners in the IKAg database.

As published in the platforms' official partner directories, collected by IKAg.