What is Cigar Agency specialised in?

Campaign concepts & big ideas, Campaign execution, Website development.

How big is Cigar Agency?

Around 5 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Who are the clients of Cigar Agency?

Among others VNZ - Vlaams & Neutraal Ziekenfonds, Valumat.

Review: Cigar Agency

Cigar Agency is al ruim twintig jaar actief als full-service bureau uit Antwerpen. De bezetting ligt rond 5 VTE. Het aanbod is gericht op creatie & reclame en webdevelopment. De ervaring zit vooral in kmo's; o.a. zuivel/fmcg. Tot de publiek bekende klanten behoren VNZ - Vlaams & Neutraal Ziekenfonds en Valumat.

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

2022202320242025

Latest year: € 353.411 gross margin, growth +14,4% against a sector median of +1,7%.

At or above sector pace

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

2022202320242025

Cigar AgencySector median

EBITDA margin 21%, sector median 23,9%. Value-added coverage 1,28 (median 1,27).

Healthy margin

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 78.536

Median (2025) € 78.251

Against a payroll cost of € 58.590 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Around the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 59

Median (2025) € 49

5.974 hours worked, 1.328 per FTE. Against that sits € 44 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 15 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: 6,7 months (median 5,8 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 147.047.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 21.361. Liquidity ratio 1,14: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 24,2%.

Tightly covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 150 days of supplier credit, sector median 54. The accounts were filed 213 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

Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Oct 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Sep 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Aug 2026 · Google Autocomplete

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

Profitable in every one of the last 4 years
Strong buffer: 6,7 months of payroll in equity
Stable team (no meaningful FTE loss)
Value-added per euro of payroll above the sector median (1,28)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 22,7× the capital contributed)
Turnover below the median (22,2%)

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, 2022 to 2025Result, staff and balance sheet

	2022	2023	2024	2025
Result
Gross margin	€ 378.166	€ 329.993-12,7%	€ 309.002-6,4%	€ 353.411+14,4%
EBITDA	€ 96.489	€ 81.871	€ 56.950	€ 74.262
EBITDA margin	25,5%	24,8%	18,4%	21%
Staff
FTE	5,3	4,1-22,6%	4,5+9,8%	4,50%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 71.352	€ 80.486	€ 68.667	€ 78.536
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 51.431	€ 52.245	€ 53.235	€ 58.590
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 76.769	€ 86.720	€ 90.537	€ 147.047
Cash	€ 27.395	€ 15.918	€ 62.921	€ 21.361
Liquidity ratio	1,07	1,03	1,00	1,14

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 29/01/2026. 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 3 services

Advertising & Campaigns

Campaign concepts & big ideas Campaign execution

Digital Experience & Tech

Website development

Sector focus

Health & pharmaEnergy & utilities

Publicly known clients

VNZ - Vlaams & Neutraal ZiekenfondsValumat

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

€ 58.590

-3% versus the median

Team composition

4,5 FTE

14% women
86% men

€ 58.590

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

22,2%

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

Inflow 2025

/

2022202320242025

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.