Review: Brum Smith

Brum Smith is een pr- & communicatiebureau. Op de loonlijst staan ongeveer 2 voltijdse equivalenten. De opgegeven expertise is pr & communicatie en content & copy. Sectoren waar het bureau vaak werkt: b2b en corporate organisaties (breed). Publiek gekende klanten zijn onder meer Gentis.

ContinuitySolid17,1 months of wages without income · median 3,6

littlea lot

SeniorityJunior profile€ 47.720 per FTE, € 3.977 a month · median € 62.880

juniorsenior

GrowthGrowing fast39,4% gross margin versus the previous year · median -4,9%

shrinkinggrowth

ProfitabilityAmple margin55,9% of gross margin remains as EBITDA · median 17,7%

thinample

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

202320242025

Latest year: € 487.879 gross margin, growth +39,4% against a sector median of -4,9%.

At or above sector pace

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

202320242025

Brum SmithSector median

EBITDA margin 55,9%, sector median 17,7%. Value-added coverage 2,36 (median 1,17).

Healthy margin

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 116.162

Median (2024) € 74.978

Against a payroll cost of € 47.720 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Above the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 65

Median (2024) € 47

7.450 hours worked, 1.774 per FTE. Against that sits € 27 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 39 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: 29,7 months (median 7,7 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 496.615.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 285.218. Liquidity ratio 3,15: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 71,8%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 58 days of supplier credit, sector median 89. The accounts were filed 146 days after closing; the legal deadline is seven months.

Pays and files on time

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 · 30 Aug 2024 · NBB
The annual accounts were filed after the statutory deadline. Over a third of the sector does this; rarely alarming in itself.

Click a signal for a plain-language explanation.

What this agency does well

EBITDA margin above the sector median (55,9%)
Profitable in every one of the last 3 years
Strong buffer: 29,7 months of payroll in equity
Team grew (+75,0% FTE in the latest year)
Value-added per euro of payroll above the sector median (2,36)
Healthy working capital (current ratio 3,15)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 108,8× the capital contributed)
Comfortable cash position: 519 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, 2023 to 2025Result, staff and balance sheet

	2023	2024	2025
Result
Gross margin	€ 430.642	€ 349.995-18,7%	€ 487.879+39,4%
EBITDA	€ 337.346	€ 204.537	€ 272.864
EBITDA margin	78,3%	58,4%	55,9%
Staff
FTE	2,0	2,4+20%	4,2+75%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 215.321	€ 145.831	€ 116.162
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 40.496	€ 59.021	€ 47.720
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 402.500	€ 530.159	€ 496.615
Cash	€ 155.153	€ 102.168	€ 285.218
Liquidity ratio	2,07	4,31	3,15

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 26/05/2026. 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 27 Jul 2026. Sector medians based on financial year 2024: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.

What the agency actually does 4 services

Content & Production

Content strategy & editorial Copywriting & long-form content

PR & Reputation

Corporate communication PR strategy & media relations

Sector focus

B2Bcorporate organisaties (breed)

Publicly known clients

Gentis

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

1

People 3 people mapped

CV

Caroline Van Limbergen

Senior Consultant

GA

Gaëlle Appelmans

Senior Consultant

MP

Michael Pszeniczko

Public Affairs Specialist

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

€ 47.720

-24% versus the median

Team composition

4,2 VTE

63% women
37% men

€ 47.720

Median PR- & communicatiebureau (2024) € 62.880All agencies (2024) € 59.129

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

47,6%

Median for this type of agency (2024): 32,5%

Inflow 2025

104,8%

4,4 FTE in, 2,0 FTE out

Net team change

+2,4 VTE

202320242025

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.