How big is Paper Duck?

Around 3 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Review: Paper Duck

Vanuit Flémalle werkt Paper Duck sinds 2011 als full-service bureau. Er werken ongeveer 3 mensen, uitgedrukt in voltijdse equivalenten.

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: € 207.584 gross margin, growth +1% against a sector median of +1,7%.

Growing slower than the sector

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

Paper DuckSector median

EBITDA margin 33,3%, sector median 23,9%. Value-added coverage 1,52 (median 1,27).

Healthy margin

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 64.870

Median (2025) € 78.251

Against a payroll cost of € 41.748 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 38

Median (2025) € 49

5.488 hours worked, 1.715 per FTE. Against that sits € 24 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 13 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: 14,1 months (median 5,8 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 157.393.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 158.144. Liquidity ratio 1,57: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 22,9%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 54 days of supplier credit, sector median 54. The accounts were filed 240 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

No serious signals

Signals in the last 24 months

Late filing · 28 Aug 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.
Late filing · 28 Aug 2025 · 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.
Board change · 28 Jul 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

Gross margin grew 4 years in a row
EBITDA margin above the sector median (33,3%)
Strong buffer: 14,1 months of payroll in equity
Value-added per euro of payroll above the sector median (1,52)
Margin per hour worked rose 2 years in a row
Healthy working capital (current ratio 1,57)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 4,0× the capital contributed)
Comfortable cash position: 432 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	€ 162.616	€ 183.127+12,6%	€ 185.382+1,2%	€ 205.438+10,8%	€ 207.584+1%
EBITDA	€ 63.515	€ 72.260	€ 50.195	€ 64.285	€ 69.163
EBITDA margin	39,1%	39,5%	27,1%	31,3%	33,3%
Staff
FTE	2,9	3,1+6,9%	4,0+29%	3,4-15%	3,2-5,9%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 56.074	€ 59.073	€ 46.346	€ 60.423	€ 64.870
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 33.224	€ 35.073	€ 32.572	€ 40.188	€ 41.748
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 103.308	€ 116.636	€ 136.021	€ 146.503	€ 157.393
Cash	€ 168.519	€ 129.371	€ 118.202	€ 149.613	€ 158.144
Liquidity ratio	1,92	1,90	1,86	1,56	1,57

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 28/08/2026. 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.

Coming soon

We're working on this part of the factsheet.

Coming soon

We're working on this part of the factsheet.

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

€ 41.748

-31% versus the median

Team composition

3,2 FTE

15% women
85% men

€ 41.748

Median Full-service bureau (2025) € 60.368All 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

75,0%

Median for this type of agency (2025): 31,1%

Inflow 2025

78,1%

2,5 FTE in, 2,4 FTE out

Net team change

+0,1 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 2025: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.