Review: Crosscast

Crosscast is een full-service bureau met thuisbasis in Gent. De dienstverlening draait om content & copy.

ContinuityWatch

GrowthShrinking-24,3% gross margin versus the previous year · median 3,1%

shrinkinggrowth

ProfitabilityLoss-making-64,2% of gross margin remains as EBITDA · median 16,3%

thinample

ResilienceHealthy balance sheet22% of the balance sheet is equity · median 26%

thinample

Per-head and per-hour figures say too little here: too few people are on the payroll. This factsheet therefore shows growth, profitability and balance sheet.

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: € 94.514 gross margin, growth -24,3% against a sector median of +3,1%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

2021202220232024

CrosscastSector median

EBITDA margin -64,2%, sector median 16,3%. Value-added coverage 0,60 (median 1,18).

Loss-making

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 49.744

Median (2024) € 73.245

Against a payroll cost of € 80.396 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 29

Median (2024) € 43

3.240 hours worked, 1.705 per FTE. Against that sits € 47 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: 6,6 months (median 5,5 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 83.711.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 24.197. Liquidity ratio 1,27: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 21,5%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 1.074 days of supplier credit, sector median 59. 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

Warnings active

Signals in the last 24 months

Late filing · 29 Aug 2025 · NBB
The annual accounts were filed after the statutory deadline. Over a third of the sector does this; rarely alarming in itself.
Sharp drop in equity · 31 Dec 2024 · NBB
The financial reserve shrank by more than 30% over two financial years. Watch whether the trend continues.
Low value-added coverage · 31 Dec 2024 · NBB
Every euro of payroll generates less than 95 cents of added value. The team is not fully earning itself back.
Loss-making year · 31 Dec 2024 · NBB
A financial year closed at a loss. On its own that need not be alarming (investments, a lost client); watch for repetition.
Late filing · 31 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

Strong buffer: 6,6 months of payroll in equity
Healthy working capital (current ratio 1,27)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 22,6× the capital contributed)

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	€ 123.000	€ 188.739+53,4%	€ 124.810-33,9%	€ 94.514-24,3%
EBITDA	€ 69.000	€ 94.897	€ 15.115	€ -60.638
EBITDA margin	56,1%	50,3%	12,1%	-64,2%
Staff
FTE	-	-	-	1,9
Gross margin per FTE	-	-	-	€ 49.744
Payroll cost per FTE	-	-	-	€ 80.396
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 77.000	€ 137.980	€ 146.410	€ 83.711
Cash	-	€ 414.034	€ 279.378	€ 24.197
Liquidity ratio	-	1,69	1,35	1,27

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 2024, filed on 29/08/2025. 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 2 services

Content & Production

Content strategy & editorial Copywriting & long-form content

Sector focus

B2B, bedrijven die marketingcapaciteit/freelance experts zoeken

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

1

People 4 people mapped

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

I

Ingrid

Marketing & Communication Manager

I

Isabelle

R

Remi

TN

Tuyet Nga

Digital Marketeer

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

€ 80.396

+40% versus the median

Team composition

1,9 VTE

€ 80.396

Median Full-service bureau (2024) € 57.493All 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 2024

/

Median for this type of agency (2024): 33,9%

Inflow 2024

52,6%

Source: annual accounts and social reports (NBB), collected by IKAg. Financial year 2024. 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.