Review: GBL Studio

GBL Studio is een brandingbureau met thuisbasis in Heule. Er werken ongeveer 11 mensen, uitgedrukt in voltijdse equivalenten. De focus ligt op strategie, branding & identiteit en creatie & reclame. Sectoren waar het bureau vaak werkt: west-vlaamse kmo's (regio kortrijk). Uit de publiek bekende klantenlijst: Gelis.

ContinuityWatch3,6 months of wages without income · median 5,2

littlea lot

Team stabilityLittle churn24,4% a year, roughly 1 in 4 · median 37,6%

stablea lot

SeniorityMixed profile€ 67.448 per FTE, € 5.621 a month · median € 57.161

juniorsenior

Price levelTop of market€ 81 per hour worked · median € 46

keentop

Partnerships

Google Ads Partner

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: € 1,13 mln gross margin, growth -9,7% against a sector median of +2,1%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

GBL StudioSector median

EBITDA margin 30%, sector median 26,5%. Value-added coverage 1,48 (median 1,30).

Healthy margin

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 107.020

Median (2024) € 78.994

Against a payroll cost of € 67.448 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Above the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 81

Median (2024) € 46

14.000 hours worked, 1.321 per FTE. Against that sits € 51 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 30 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: 12,7 months (median 8,3 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 756.093.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 215.264. Liquidity ratio 1,04: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 20,5%.

Tightly covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 386 days of supplier credit, sector median 73. The accounts were filed 180 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

Warnings active

Signals in the last 24 months

Sharp headcount decline · 31 Dec 2024 · NBB
Average headcount fell by 15% or more in a year. Often felt in the seniority on your account.
Late filing · 13 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 (30,0%)
Strong buffer: 12,7 months of payroll in equity
Value-added per euro of payroll above the sector median (1,48)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 39,7× the capital contributed)
Comfortable cash position: 110 days of payroll
Turnover below the median (9,4%)

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	€ 1,25 mln	€ 1,35 mln+7,8%	€ 1,37 mln+1,7%	€ 1,26 mln-8,7%	€ 1,13 mln-9,7%
EBITDA	€ 369.000	€ 443.000	€ 493.448	€ 416.764	€ 340.423
EBITDA margin	29,4%	32,8%	35,9%	33,2%	30%
Staff
FTE	14,3	14,1-1,4%	14,10%	11,6-17,7%	10,6-8,6%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 87.692	€ 95.887	€ 97.496	€ 108.246	€ 107.020
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 55.804	€ 59.078	€ 65.854	€ 67.381	€ 67.448
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 652.000	€ 750.000	€ 831.396	€ 855.937	€ 756.093
Cash	-	-	€ 283.191	€ 171.136	€ 215.264
Liquidity ratio	-	-	1,08	1,10	1,04

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 29/06/2026. 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 34 services

Strategy & Insights

AI & innovation strategy Brand strategy & positioning Customer & audience strategy

Branding & Design

Brand identity & design Packaging design

Advertising & Campaigns

Campaign concepts & big ideas Campaign execution Performance creative & DCO

Content & Production

Content strategy & editorial

Media

Digital & programmatic buying Media strategy & planning Offline buying (TV, radio, print, OOH) Search advertising (SEA)

Social, Influencer & Community

Influencer & creator marketing Organic social content Social strategy & platform mix

Digital Experience & Tech

E-commerce (incl. payment) Mobile apps & PWAs SEO & GEO Website development Website strategy & UX

CRM, Email & Loyalty

CRM & lifecycle strategy Direct marketing & lead management Marketing automation

Data, Measurement & Governance

Dashboards & reporting Data science & analytics (incl. predictive modelling)

PR & Reputation

Corporate communication PR strategy & media relations

Employer Brand & Internal

Employer brand strategy Internal communication Recruitment campaigns

Events, Sponsoring & Activation

Brand activation (incl. guerrilla) Events & experiences Sponsorship & partnerships

Sector focus

West-Vlaamse kmo's (regio Kortrijk)

Publicly known clients

Gelis

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

€ 67.448

+18% versus the median

Team composition

10,6 VTE

81% women
19% men

€ 67.448

Median Brandingbureau (2024) € 57.161All 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.

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

9,4%

Median for this type of agency (2024): 37,6%

Inflow 2025

9,4%

1,0 FTE in, 1,0 FTE out

Net team change

0,0 VTE

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.

Official partnerships 1 badge(s)

Google Ads: Partner1 of 68 Belgian partners in the IKAg database.

As published in the platforms' official partner directories, collected by IKAg.