How big is De Praeters?

Around 3 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Review: De Praeters

De Praeters bestaat sinds 2021 en profileert zich als productiehuis uit Hasselt. Op de loonlijst staan ongeveer 3 voltijdse equivalenten.

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: € 130.475 gross margin, growth -6,9% against a sector median of 0%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

2022202320242025

De PraetersSector median

EBITDA margin -12,6%, sector median 45,7%. Value-added coverage 0,89 (median 1,46).

Loss-making

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 48.324

Median (2025) € 77.875

Against a payroll cost of € 53.943 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 28

Median (2025) € 48

4.620 hours worked, 1.711 per FTE. Against that sits € 32 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € -3 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: 1,9 months (median 9,9 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 23.307.

Thin buffer

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

Cash € 140.952. Liquidity ratio 2,97: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 5,8%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 112 days of supplier credit, sector median 58. The accounts were filed 89 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

Points to ask about

Signals in the last 24 months

Thin buffer · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
Equity covers less than three months of payroll. A limited reserve, and at many smaller agencies the normal state of affairs. Ask how the agency absorbs a setback.
Loss-making year · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
One financial year closed at a loss. The size is not shown here: it can be a few thousand euros, a one-off settlement, or a deliberate investment. Ask the agency what was behind it.
Sharp drop in equity · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
The financial reserve shrank by more than 30% over two financial years. A dividend, buying out a partner and a loss-making year all look the same here. Ask which of the three it was.
Low value-added coverage · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
Every euro of payroll generates less than 95 cents of added value. That happens in a build-up year, with a lot of subcontracting, or under pressure on rates. Ask what explains it here.
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

Team grew (+3,8% FTE in the latest year)
Healthy working capital (current ratio 2,97)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 16,7× the capital contributed)
Comfortable cash position: 353 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, 2022 to 2025Result, staff and balance sheet

	2022	2023	2024	2025
Result
Gross margin	€ 9.410	€ 84.333+796,3%	€ 140.095+66,1%	€ 130.475-6,9%
EBITDA	€ 9.298	€ 50.165	€ 23.558	€ -16.463
EBITDA margin	98,8%	59,5%	16,8%	-12,6%
Staff
FTE	-	-	2,6	2,7+3,8%
Gross margin per FTE	-	-	€ 53.883	€ 48.324
Payroll cost per FTE	-	-	€ 44.725	€ 53.943
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 7.920	€ 41.421	€ 53.037	€ 23.307
Cash	€ 894	€ 80.932	€ 53.710	€ 140.952
Liquidity ratio	1,91	1,66	1,92	2,97

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 30/03/2026. 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.

Coming soon

We're working on this part of the factsheet.

Coming soon

We're working on this part of the factsheet.

1

People 6 people mapped

The heart of this team is creative: 4 of 6 profiles are makers. Within that core, Copywriting and Art Direction stand out. A specialist, not a generalist: the expertise is narrow but deep.

PT

Pieter-Jan Theunis

Creative Director

EC

Esther Coolen

Podcast Producer

KE

Koen Eykens

Business Development

LD

Liesbeth De Kegel

Communicatie

TM

Tim-Oliver Metz

Podcast Producer

YD

Yoni Driessens

Podcast Producer

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

€ 53.943

-2% versus the median

Team composition

2,7 FTE

47% women
53% men

€ 53.943

Median Productiehuis (2025) € 55.256All 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.

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

37,0%

Median for this type of agency (2025): 30,8%

Inflow 2025

111,1%

3,0 FTE in, 1,0 FTE out

Net team change

+2,0 FTE

20242025

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.