What is Markies specialised in?

Brand strategy & positioning, Marketing strategy, Brand identity & design, CRM & lifecycle strategy, Marketing automation, Dashboards & reporting.

Around 2 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Who are the clients of Markies?

Among others Drivolution, Studaro, Trends Business Information, VGD.

Review: Markies

Sinds 2021 is Markies actief als brandingbureau uit Wilrijk. Het aanbod bestrijkt strategie, branding & identiteit, data & analytics en crm & marketing automation. Sectoren waar het bureau vaak werkt: b2b-ondernemingen die willen groeien. Uit de publiek bekende klantenlijst: Drivolution, Studaro, Trends Business Information en VGD.

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

2022202320242025

Latest year: € 51.893 gross margin, growth -59,2% against a sector median of +2,1%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

2022202320242025

MarkiesSector median

EBITDA margin -57,7%, sector median 28%. Value-added coverage 0,63 (median 1,30).

Loss-making

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 34.595

Median (2024) € 78.994

Against a payroll cost of € 54.059 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 17

Median (2024) € 47

3.042 hours worked, 2.028 per FTE. Against that sits € 27 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € -10 for premises, equipment, depreciation and profit.

Below 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: -3,1 months (median 8,3 mo). Equity in the latest year: € -20.969.

Critical buffer

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

Cash € 48.469. Liquidity ratio 0,98: current assets cover short-term debt not in full. Solvency -13%.

Tightly covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 734 days of supplier credit, sector median 74. The accounts were filed 232 days after closing; the legal deadline is seven months.

Filed late

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

3 red flag(s) (24m)

Signals in the last 24 months

Late filing · 20 May 2026 · NBB
The annual accounts were filed after the statutory deadline. Over a third of the sector does this, usually because of the accountant's calendar. Rarely a story in itself.
Sharp drop in equity · 30 Sep 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.
Two consecutive loss-making years · 30 Sep 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.
Negative equity · 30 Sep 2025 · NBB
Debts exceed assets. Sometimes a subordinated shareholder loan sits opposite that, sometimes not. Ask how the agency is covering this, and on what timescale.
Critical buffer · 30 Sep 2025 · NBB
Equity covers less than one month of payroll. At an agency that pays out its profit every year this means something different than at one that is losing money. Ask where the reserve sits.
Low value-added coverage · 30 Sep 2025 · NBB
Every euro of payroll generates less than 95 cents of added value. That happens in a build-up year, with a lot of subcontracting, or under pressure on rates. Ask what explains it here.
+ 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

Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 5,5× the capital contributed)
Comfortable cash position: 218 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.

4 financial years, 2022 to 2025Result, staff and balance sheet

	2022	2023	2024	2025
Result
Gross margin	€ 13.106	€ 94.213+618,8%	€ 127.039+34,8%	€ 51.893-59,2%
EBITDA	€ 11.931	€ 33.696	€ 2.726	€ -29.946
EBITDA margin	91%	35,8%	2,1%	-57,7%
Staff
FTE	-	1,6	2,6+62,5%	1,5-42,3%
Gross margin per FTE	-	€ 58.883	€ 48.861	€ 34.595
Payroll cost per FTE	-	€ 36.906	€ 47.390	€ 54.059
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 13.610	€ 32.662	€ 21.963	€ -20.969
Cash	€ 20.132	€ 13.053	€ 26.506	€ 48.469
Liquidity ratio	1,04	1,12	0,94	0,98

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 20/05/2026. 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 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 7 services

Strategy & Insights

Brand strategy & positioning Marketing strategy

Branding & Design

Brand identity & design

CRM, Email & Loyalty

CRM & lifecycle strategy Marketing automation

Data, Measurement & Governance

Dashboards & reporting Data science & analytics (incl. predictive modelling)

Sector focus

B2B-ondernemingen die willen groeien

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

Publicly known clients

DrivolutionStudaroTrends Business InformationVGD

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

1

People 3 people mapped

HS

Hans Smellinckx

KG

Kurt Ghijsbrecht

RD

Roeland De Meulemeester

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

€ 54.059

-6% versus the median

Team composition

1,5 FTE

€ 54.059

Median Brandingbureau (2024) € 57.393All 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

266,7%

Median for this type of agency (2024): 33,9%

Inflow 2025

/

202320242025

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.