What is November Five specialised in?

Brand strategy & positioning, Marketing strategy, Brand identity & design, Website development, Website strategy & UX.

How big is November Five?

Around 32 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Which sectors does November Five work for?

Retail & e-commerce, Sports & entertainment, Technology & software, Telecom & media, Food & beverage.

Who are the clients of November Five?

Among others Coca-Cola, Spotify, BASE, MDLBEAST, Le Pain Quotidien.

Review: November Five

Vanuit Antwerpen werkt November Five sinds 2009 als digitaal bureau (web & platform). Op de loonlijst staan ongeveer 32 voltijdse equivalenten. Het bureau combineert webdevelopment, ux/ui design, strategie en branding & identiteit. De klanten komen vooral uit enterprise/corporate digitale producten, telecom, fmcg en retail/e-commerce. Uit de publiek bekende klantenlijst: Coca-Cola, Spotify, BASE en MDLBEAST.

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: € 3,16 mln gross margin, growth -25,3% against a sector median of +3,1%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

November FiveSector median

EBITDA margin 8,5%, sector median 22,6%. Value-added coverage 1,09 (median 1,23). Value-added coverage sits in the sector-wide grey zone (0.95-1.15): context, not an alarm.

Below sector level

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 100.360

Median (2025) € 77.398

Against a payroll cost of € 91.734 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Above the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 62

Median (2025) € 48

50.811 hours worked, 1.613 per FTE. Against that sits € 57 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 5 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: 3,9 months (median 5,3 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 936.582.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 394.337. Liquidity ratio 1,43: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 19,5%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 91 days of supplier credit, sector median 46. The accounts were filed 184 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

Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Nov 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Oct 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Sep 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Sep 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Aug 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Sharp headcount decline · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
Average headcount fell by 15% or more in a year. That can be contraction, and just as easily a deliberate choice for fewer but more experienced people. Ask who left and who came in their place.
+ 2 older signals within 24m

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

Healthy working capital (current ratio 1,43)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 49,5× 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.

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

	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Result
Gross margin	€ 3,79 mln	€ 4,29 mln+13%	€ 5,20 mln+21,2%	€ 4,23 mln-18,5%	€ 3,16 mln-25,3%
EBITDA	€ 330.770	€ 479.782	€ 648.692	€ 417.586	€ 268.260
EBITDA margin	8,7%	11,2%	12,5%	9,9%	8,5%
Staff
FTE	45,9	47,6+3,7%	50,8+6,7%	41,6-18,1%	31,5-24,3%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 82.588	€ 90.027	€ 102.270	€ 101.789	€ 100.360
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 75.311	€ 78.489	€ 89.439	€ 90.953	€ 91.734
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 769.151	€ 788.233	€ 1,01 mln	€ 1,22 mln	€ 936.582
Cash	€ 474.050	€ 121.247	€ 207.046	€ 73.891	€ 394.337
Liquidity ratio	1,84	2,01	1,54	1,47	1,43

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 03/07/2026. 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 5 services

Strategy & Insights

Brand strategy & positioning Marketing strategy

Branding & Design

Brand identity & design

Digital Experience & Tech

Website development Website strategy & UX

Sector focus

TelecomFMCGMedia & entertainmentFood & beverage

Publicly known clients

Coca-ColaSpotifyBASEMDLBEASTLe Pain Quotidien

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

1

People 1 people mapped

SM

Sarah Meeus

Product Owner

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

€ 91.734

+45% versus the median

Team composition

31,5 FTE

21% women
79% men

€ 91.734

Median Digitaal bureau (web & platform) (2025) € 63.343All 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

37,5%

Median for this type of agency (2025): 27,9%

Inflow 2025

17,5%

5,5 FTE in, 11,8 FTE out

Net team change

-6,3 FTE

20212022202320242025

Exits are clearly above what is usual for this type of agency. That may reflect project-based staffing, but it is a reason to ask in the pitch how much of the proposed team was already here two years ago, and to contractually fix your permanent contacts.

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.