What is Onnest specialised in?

Brand strategy & positioning, Marketing strategy, Brand identity & design, Paid social, Search advertising (SEA), Website strategy & UX.

Around 2 full-time equivalents (financial year 2024).

Review: Onnest: Full Service Agency

Q: Who are the clients of Onnest?

Among others De Nachtwacht, De Bosbeke, Grando, Centric, Mulder, Loff, BOSS paints.

Onnest bestaat sinds 2016 en profileert zich als brandingbureau uit Kortrijk. De opgegeven expertises zijn strategie, branding & identiteit, paid media (sea/social/display) en ux/ui design. Het zwaartepunt ligt bij opdrachtgevers uit regionaal verankerde familiebedrijven.

Kernactiviteiten:
Onnest biedt eerlijke, haalbare en rendabele marketing. Wij willen grensverleggend zijn door onze marketingkennis en -kunde in te zetten voor een duurzame toekomst. De naam Onnest is tegelijk een heldere belofte aan elke klant: wij staan voor eerlijke marketing. Van strategie tot branding, online marketing, sociale media, pr, grafisch ontwerp, advertising, employer branding, websites enz…

Klanten:
Onnest is het marketingbureau voor iedereen die ambitieus en respectvol onderneemt. Onze klanten zijn voornamelijk KMO's en in het bijzonder familiebedrijven die B2B of B2C werken.
Team:
2 marketing strategen, 1 sales, 2 projectmanagers, 2 grafisch designers, 2 online (performance) marketeers, 2 developers
Zelfomschreven cultuur:
Familiaal, eerlijk en integer.

Referentieklanten: De Nachtwacht, De Bosbeke, Grando, Centric, Mulder, Loff, BOSS paints
Tech stack: Wordpress, Statemic
Gepercipieerde concurrenten: Indie Group, GBL Studio, KIXX, DM'S
Werkt complementair samen: Westshot, Moments of Colour, Thomas Evrard
Inspiratie: Focus Advertising, Hurae
Ondernemingsnummer: BE0667.859.945
Gemiddelde klantgrootte: 54k

Who do they see as competitors?

comma Hummingbirds KIXX

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

202220232024

Latest year: € 98.450 gross margin, growth -20,8% against a sector median of +2,1%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

202220232024

OnnestSector median

EBITDA margin 15,5%, sector median 28%. Value-added coverage 1,19 (median 1,30).

Below sector level

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 54.695

Median (2024) € 78.994

Against a payroll cost of € 45.755 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 33

Median (2024) € 47

2.942 hours worked, 1.634 per FTE. Against that sits € 28 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 5 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: 4,9 months (median 8,3 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 33.696.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 51.396. Liquidity ratio 1,02: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 18,3%.

Tightly covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 317 days of supplier credit, sector median 74. The accounts were filed 175 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 Sep 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Sep 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Aug 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Board change · 21 Mar 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

Profitable in every one of the last 3 years
Margin per hour worked rose 2 years in a row
Comfortable cash position: 228 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.

3 financial years, 2022 to 2024Result, staff and balance sheet

	2022	2023	2024
Result
Gross margin	€ 242.463	€ 124.252-48,8%	€ 98.450-20,8%
EBITDA	€ 17.943	€ 13.770	€ 15.242
EBITDA margin	7,4%	11,1%	15,5%
Staff
FTE	4,8	2,5-47,9%	1,8-28%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 50.513	€ 49.701	€ 54.695
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 46.614	€ 43.622	€ 45.755
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 31.998	€ 33.261	€ 33.696
Cash	€ 54.865	€ 51.798	€ 51.396
Liquidity ratio	1,00	1,00	1,02

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 2024, filed on 24/03/2025. 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 6 services

Strategy & Insights

Brand strategy & positioning Marketing strategy

Branding & Design

Brand identity & design

Media

Paid social Search advertising (SEA)

Digital Experience & Tech

Website strategy & UX

Sector focus

Regionaal verankerde familiebedrijven

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

Publicly known clients

LOFF, Atelier Noterman, Mulder, Abutriek, Grando Keukens, Matching Talent, Leybaert, ACA, De Nachtwacht, EnergieQ, KOVRD, Terryn & Partners, Bikes & Parts, Nitocon, Cobergher Hotel

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

1

People 9 people mapped

A broad team with no clear centre of gravity — digital marketing, strategy and creative carry roughly equal weight. There are 3 strategists around — expect thinking first, pixels second.

A

Annemoon

Digital content creator

B

Bram

Digital marketeer

C

Cis

Marketing strateeg

D

Daphne

Marketing advisor

E

Emma

Projectmanager

E

Evelyn

Growth marketeer

J

Jane

Grafisch vormgever / motion designer

K

Kerlijne

Make-it-happen marketeer

K

Kurt

Marketing strateeg

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

€ 45.755

-20% versus the median

Team composition

1,8 FTE

€ 45.755

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 2024

55,6%

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

Inflow 2024

/

202220232024

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 2024. 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.