How big is The Communication Square?

Around 0 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Who are the clients of The Communication Square?

Among others BMW, ENGIE, Chatworks, Melle In Beweging.

Review: The Communication Square

Q: What is The Communication Square specialised in?

Campaign concepts & big ideas, Campaign execution, Corporate communication, PR strategy & media relations, Employer brand strategy, Recruitment campaigns.

Vanuit Melle werkt The Communication Square sinds 1989 als employer branding bureau. Het bureau combineert employer branding, pr & communicatie en creatie & reclame. Uit de publiek bekende klantenlijst: BMW, ENGIE, Chatworks en Melle In Beweging.

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

2021202220232025

Latest year: € 130.399 gross margin, growth -42,2% against a sector median of +1,9%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

2021202220232025

The Communication SquareSector median

EBITDA margin 16,2%, sector median 24,6%. Value-added coverage 1,77 (median 1,24).

Healthy margin

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 434.663

Median all agencies (2024) € 76.097

Against a payroll cost of € 91.751 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Above the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 312

Median all agencies (2024) € 46

418 hours worked, 1.393 per FTE. Against that sits € 66 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 246 for premises, equipment, depreciation and profit.

Above 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: 85,0 months (median 6,8 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 195.031.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 274.330. Liquidity ratio 1,57: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 32%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 493 days of supplier credit, sector median 62. The accounts were filed 241 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

Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Sep 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Late filing · 29 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.
Registered office moved · 12 Feb 2025 · Staatsblad
The registered office relocated. Usually just a new office.

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: 85,0 months of payroll in equity
Value-added per euro of payroll above the sector median (1,77)
Margin per hour worked rose 3 years in a row
Healthy working capital (current ratio 1,57)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 8,3× the capital contributed)
Comfortable cash position: 3638 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, 2021 to 2025Result, staff and balance sheet

	2021	2022	2023	2025
Result
Gross margin	€ 96.264	€ 173.879+80,6%	€ 225.635+29,8%	€ 130.399-42,2%
EBITDA	€ 22.529	€ 41.834	€ 104.537	€ 21.188
EBITDA margin	23,4%	24,1%	46,3%	16,2%
Staff
FTE	2,8	2,80%	2,4-14,3%	0,3-87,5%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 34.380	€ 62.100	€ 94.014	€ 434.663
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 25.778	€ 43.623	€ 50.091	€ 91.751
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 92.476	€ 101.044	€ 135.979	€ 195.031
Cash	€ 259.425	€ 499.668	€ 425.950	€ 274.330
Liquidity ratio	1,08	1,05	1,10	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 29/05/2026. 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 6 services

Advertising & Campaigns

Campaign concepts & big ideas Campaign execution

PR & Reputation

Corporate communication PR strategy & media relations

Employer Brand & Internal

Employer brand strategy Recruitment campaigns

Sector focus

Automotive & mobilityEnergy & utilitiesPublic sector & government

Publicly known clients

BMWENGIEChatworksMelle In Beweging

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

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

€ 91.751

+55% versus the median

Team composition

0,3 FTE

€ 91.751

All agencies (2024) € 59.069

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

666,7%

Median all agencies (2024): 33,2%

Inflow 2025

/

2021202220232025

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.