What is Production Pirates specialised in?

Packaging design, Campaign concepts & big ideas, Campaign execution, Influencer & creator marketing, Organic social content, Social strategy & platform mix.

How big is Production Pirates?

Around 6 full-time equivalents (financial year 2024).

Which sectors does Production Pirates work for?

Hospitality & tourism, Sports & entertainment, Telecom & media.

Review: Production Pirates

Q: Who are the clients of Production Pirates?

Among others Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, Amazon MGM Studios, The Walt Disney Company, Walibi Belgium, Bellewaerde Park, Plopsa, VTM, Proximus Media House, Ubisoft, BrightFish, SodaStream, Tomorrowland.

Production Pirates is al ruim tien jaar actief als eventbureau uit Herentals. Op de loonlijst staan ongeveer 5 voltijdse equivalenten. De opgegeven expertises zijn crm & marketing automation, events, pr & communicatie en social media.

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

2021202220232024

Latest year: € 316.167 gross margin, growth -10% against a sector median of +12,7%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

2021202220232024

Production PiratesSector median

EBITDA margin 44,9%, sector median 48,1%. Value-added coverage 1,83 (median 1,65).

Healthy margin

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 57.485

Median (2025) € 92.992

Against a payroll cost of € 30.942 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 39

Median (2025) € 56

8.044 hours worked, 1.463 per FTE. Against that sits € 21 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 18 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: -6,2 months (median 12,1 mo). Equity in the latest year: € -88.556.

Critical buffer

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

Cash € 8.157. Liquidity ratio 0,55: current assets cover short-term debt not in full. Solvency -15,5%.

Not covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 139 days of supplier credit, sector median 87. The accounts were filed 212 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

4 red flag(s) (24m)

Signals in the last 24 months

Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Sep 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Aug 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Judicial reorganisation · 30 Jul 2026 · KBO
The agency sought protection from creditors in order to restructure. Serious, and at the same time designed to enable a restart; agencies do come through it. Ask about the plan and where it stands.
Two consecutive loss-making years · 31 Dec 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.
Critical buffer · 31 Dec 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 · 31 Dec 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.
+ 6 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.

Legal status (CBE): Opschorting (gerechtelijke reorganisatie)

What this agency does well

Value-added per euro of payroll above the sector median (1,83)
Margin per hour worked rose 2 years in a row

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, 2021 to 2024Result, staff and balance sheet

	2021	2022	2023	2024
Result
Gross margin	€ 367.729	€ 422.280+14,8%	€ 351.445-16,8%	€ 316.167-10%
EBITDA	€ 224.077	€ 83.606	€ 113.254	€ 141.815
EBITDA margin	60,9%	19,8%	32,2%	44,9%
Staff
FTE	6,1	8,3+36,1%	5,7-31,3%	5,5-3,5%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 60.283	€ 50.877	€ 61.657	€ 57.485
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 21.505	€ 27.575	€ 38.186	€ 30.942
Balance sheet
Equity	€ -2.102	€ 7.752	€ 7.844	€ -88.556
Cash	€ 252.108	€ 60.839	€ 61.582	€ 8.157
Liquidity ratio	0,76	0,68	0,74	0,55

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 30/07/2026. 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 15 services

Branding & Design

Packaging design

Advertising & Campaigns

Campaign concepts & big ideas Campaign execution

Social, Influencer & Community

Influencer & creator marketing Organic social content Social strategy & platform mix

CRM, Email & Loyalty

CRM & lifecycle strategy Direct marketing & lead management Marketing automation

PR & Reputation

Corporate communication PR strategy & media relations

Employer Brand & Internal

Internal communication

Events, Sponsoring & Activation

Brand activation (incl. guerrilla) Events & experiences Sponsorship & partnerships

Sector focus

Media & entertainmentTravel & hospitalityTelecomPublic sector & government

Publicly known clients

Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, Amazon MGM Studios, The Walt Disney Company, Walibi Belgium, Bellewaerde Park, Plopsa, VTM, Proximus Media House, Ubisoft, BrightFish, SodaStream, Tomorrowland

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

1

People 3 people mapped

A small team: short lines, little noise between you and the makers.

DS

David Stuyck

Creative Captain / Managing Director

MB

Marc Broeders

Operational Captain / Managing Director

YV

Yenz van den Bergh

Project Manager

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

€ 26.679

-57% versus the median

Team composition

4,5 FTE

€ 26.679

Median Eventbureau (2025) € 62.258All 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.

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

140,0%

Median for this type of agency (2025): 47,2%

Inflow 2025

102,2%

4,6 FTE in, 6,3 FTE out

Net team change

-1,7 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.