Review: Esign (Dynamate): e-commerce & digital agency

Esign, opgericht in 2002, is een digitaal bureau (web & platform) uit Gent. Op de loonlijst staan ongeveer 37 voltijdse equivalenten. De dienstverlening draait om webdevelopment. Het zwaartepunt ligt bij opdrachtgevers uit retail/e-commerce, fashion, fmcg/food en industrie. Namen die publiek aan dit bureau gelinkt worden: Nattou, ZEB, PointCarré en Pasfrost.

ContinuityUnder pressure2,3 months of wages without income · median 2,8

littlea lot

Team stabilityLittle churn27,5% a year, roughly 1 in 4 · median 28,7%

stablea lot

SeniorityMixed profile€ 66.244 per FTE, € 5.520 a month · median € 59.418

juniorsenior

Price levelMarket rate€ 47 per hour worked · median € 45

keentop

Geïntegreerde e-commerce
Esign is een digital agency dat specialiseert in e-commerce en digitaliseren van B2B processen. Ze bouwen websites, webapplicaties, webshops en klantenportalen. Daarnaast verzorgen ze de online marketing en aanwezigheid op marktplaatsen.
Dat doen ze liefst voor middelgrote bedrijven die op zoek gaan naar efficiëntie in e-commerce.
Esign werkt met 43 VTE, waaronder:

- 15 online marketeers (SEA en SMA, e-mail automation, 1 copywriter)
- 2 analisten (tech en business)
- 20-tal developers
- 2 designers
- 4 social media managers
- 3 projectmanagers
Wat ze niet doen: offline.
Zelf omschrijven ze hun cultuur als: pragmatisch, flexibel, gestructureerd.

Referentieklanten: Barbecook, Eyelens, Maria Middelares, Manutti, Ingersoll Rand, Etex, KAA Gent, Lab9
Gepercipieerde concurrenten: Dear Digital, Meteor, Radikal, Statik, Duo, The Craft, Clicktrust, Fight Club, Digipolitans, Merkado
Tech stack: Shopify, Craft, Laravel,Next.js
Voorbeelden: Ask Phill, Code, Underwaterpistol, We Make Websites, Build in Amsterdam, Humaan
Ondernemingsnummer: 0555.863.844
Gemiddelde klantgrootte: 50-100k

Awards

1× Feweb Excellence Awards

Who do they see as competitors?

Clicktrust Dear Digital Digipolitans Fight Club Merkado Meteor Radikal Statik The Craft

As indicated by the agency itself.

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

20212022202320242025

Latest year: € 2,75 mln gross margin, growth -5,1% against a sector median of +0,9%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

EsignSector median

EBITDA margin 15,6%, sector median 18%. Value-added coverage 1,18 (median 1,16).

Healthy margin

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 75.141

Median (2024) € 74.559

Against a payroll cost of € 66.244 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Around the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 47

Median (2024) € 45

58.918 hours worked, 1.610 per FTE. Against that sits € 41 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 6 for premises, equipment, depreciation and profit.

Around 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: 3,5 months (median 4,9 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 715.184.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 473.670. Liquidity ratio 0,67: current assets cover short-term debt not in full. Solvency 8,2%.

Not covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 21 days of supplier credit, sector median 48. The accounts were filed 127 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

Warnings active

Signals in the last 24 months

Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Aug 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Sharp drop in equity · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
The financial reserve shrank by more than 30% over two financial years. Watch whether the trend continues.
Late filing · 28 Aug 2025 · NBB
The annual accounts were filed after the statutory deadline. Over a third of the sector does this; rarely alarming in itself.
Board change · 11 Aug 2025 · Staatsblad
Appointments or resignations on the board. Routine during growth or succession; watch for repeated changes.
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 · 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

Stable team (no meaningful FTE loss)
Value-added per euro of payroll above the sector median (1,18)
Comfortable cash position: 71 days of payroll
Turnover below the median (24,6%)

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.

5 financial years, 2021 to 2025Result, staff and balance sheet

	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Result
Gross margin	€ 1,88 mln	€ 2,39 mln+27,1%	€ 2,86 mln+19,8%	€ 2,90 mln+1,3%	€ 2,75 mln-5,1%
EBITDA	€ 287.712	€ 74.721	€ 346.996	€ -990.187	€ 429.347
EBITDA margin	15,3%	3,1%	12,1%	-34,2%	15,6%
Staff
FTE	28,8	37,3+29,5%	38,4+2,9%	35,9-6,5%	36,6+1,9%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 65.275	€ 64.048	€ 74.507	€ 80.728	€ 75.141
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 55.174	€ 61.689	€ 63.386	€ 65.436	€ 66.244
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 517.044	€ 1,71 mln	€ 1,87 mln	€ 608.401	€ 715.184
Cash	-	-	€ 244.673	€ 773.206	€ 473.670
Liquidity ratio	-	-	1,19	0,87	0,67

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 07/05/2026. 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 7 Aug 2026. Sector medians based on financial year 2024: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.

What the agency actually does 1 services

Digital Experience & Tech

Website development

Sector focus

Retail & e-commerceFashion & lifestyleFood & beverage

Publicly known clients

NattouFashion SocietyPasfrostColruyt

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

1

People 2 people mapped

DH

Dieter Haspeslagh

WG

Wim Garreyn

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

€ 66.244

+12% versus the median

Team composition

36,6 FTE

40% women
60% men

€ 66.244

Median Digitaal bureau (web & platform) (2024) € 59.418All agencies (2024) € 59.090

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

24,6%

Median for this type of agency (2024): 28,7%

Inflow 2025

24,6%

9,0 FTE in, 9,0 FTE out

Net team change

0,0 FTE

20212022202320242025

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.

Award-winning work 1 award(s)

2024

Feweb Excellence Awards WinnerConversion Champ · source ↗

As published by the organising award shows, collected by IKAg.