What is Quest specialised in?

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

Around 1 full-time equivalent (financial year 2025).

Review: Quest

Q: Who are the clients of Quest?

Among others Rubenshuis, FOMU, IMS, Cordeel, Vlaamse Overheid, RegioGreenTex, modulyss.

Quest, opgericht in 2018, is een ux- & designstudio uit Gent. Het aanbod bestrijkt ux/ui design, strategie, branding & identiteit en content & copy. De klanten komen vooral uit duurzaamheid, impact (klimaat, biodiversiteit en circulaire economie. Publiek gekende klanten zijn onder meer Rubenshuis, FOMU, IMS en Cordeel.

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: € 62.176 gross margin, growth -61,4% against a sector median of -3,7%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

QuestSector median

EBITDA margin 10,9%, sector median 15,1%. Value-added coverage 1,12 (median 1,06). Value-added coverage sits in the sector-wide grey zone (0.95-1.15): context, not an alarm.

Healthy margin

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 62.176

Median (2024) € 72.330

Against a payroll cost of € 55.134 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 35

Median (2024) € 42

1.792 hours worked, 1.792 per FTE. Against that sits € 31 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 4 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: 11,2 months (median 3,4 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 51.664.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 52.329. Liquidity ratio 1,63: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 32,4%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 100 days of supplier credit, sector median 53. 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

No serious signals

Signals in the last 24 months

Board change · 8 Aug 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.
Late filing · 29 Jun 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.

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

Strong buffer: 11,2 months of payroll in equity
Value-added per euro of payroll above the sector median (1,12)
Margin per hour worked rose 4 years in a row
Healthy working capital (current ratio 1,63)
Comfortable cash position: 346 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	€ 143.175	€ 297.222+107,6%	€ 226.207-23,9%	€ 161.250-28,7%	€ 62.176-61,4%
EBITDA	€ 30.712	€ 74.287	€ 23.304	€ -17.096	€ 6.760
EBITDA margin	21,5%	25%	10,3%	-10,6%	10,9%
Staff
FTE	2,8	5,3+89,3%	5,30%	3,7-30,2%	1,0-73%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 51.134	€ 56.080	€ 42.681	€ 43.581	€ 62.176
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 39.754	€ 41.975	€ 38.186	€ 47.419	€ 55.134
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 27.092	€ 70.578	€ 72.191	€ 50.490	€ 51.664
Cash	€ 97.547	€ 125.426	€ 96.064	€ 69.399	€ 52.329
Liquidity ratio	1,19	1,65	2,23	2,63	1,63

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 30/04/2026. 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 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

Content & Production

Content strategy & editorial Copywriting & long-form content

Digital Experience & Tech

Website strategy & UX

Sector focus

Media & entertainmentPublic sector & governmentFashion & lifestyleReal estate & constructionFinance & insurance

Publicly known clients

RubenshuisFOMUIMSCordeelVlaamse OverheidRegioGreenTexmodulyss

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

1

People 6 people mapped

A broad team with no clear centre of gravity — development, strategy and account & project carry roughly equal weight. The titles skew top-heavy: lots of seniority, few juniors — you're mostly buying experience. One strategist on board — enough to hold the direction, not to fill meetings.

MB

Michael Boschmans

Founder

RS

Raf Stassen

Managing Partner Luxembourg - Nature Lead

HI

Hiba Itani

AI and Development Lead

PS

Philippe Schuler

Sustainability Consultant

RB

Rani Brulmans

Digital Project & Communications Manager

ZS

Zoraida Sanchez

UX/UI Designer

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

€ 55.134

-17% versus the median

Team composition

1,0 FTE

€ 55.134

Median UX- & designstudio (2024) € 66.179All agencies (2024) € 59.021

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

135,1%

Median for this type of agency (2024): 32,6%

Inflow 2024

27,0%

1,0 FTE in, 5,0 FTE out

Net team change

-4,0 FTE

20212022202320242025

Figures for financial year 2024: in 2025 this agency published no inflow or outflow.

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.