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Manufacture of food products

Current registrations 179division 10: 9,619
Starters, 12 months 21.1 per 100 · Belgium 8.8
Employment (FTE) 2,12671 employers · latest accounts
Median age 31.0 yearsBelgium 8.1 years

No bankruptcy in the past twelve months.

Activities

NACE 1091 · 1 activity
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Manufacture of food products10910 179 2 0 2,126

Filed accounts

NACE 1091 · financial year 2025 · 141 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
45.1%
division 33.3% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€112,581
division €18,116 · Belgium €16,539
Median equity
€1.9m
division €128,840 · Belgium €98,485
Loss-making
20.6%
division 28.4% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
4.3%
division 16.2% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
9.0%
division 14.4% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.65
division 1.21 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
24.1%
financial year 2024, 145 filings · division 38.2% · Belgium 38.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 43.0%40.2%42.5%43.3%46.9%45.1%
Median net result €147,047€114,010€124,280€143,089€112,074€112,581

Hold your customer's or competitor's figures against them in the Sector benchmark

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
1
0.56% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
1
5.6 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
25-03-2024 BovimiFeed
BE 0478.766.363

Every bankruptcy in division 10, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 169 of 179 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 139 · 82.2%
  • Wallonia 27 · 16.0%
  • Abroad 3 · 1.8%
fewer moremax 59

Largest employers

NACE 1091 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 Arvesta Animal NutritionLeuven 391 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 Versele-LagaDeinze 269 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 Nuscience BelgiumGhent 127 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 Klaasen en CoRavels 103 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 NUTRECO BELGIUMGhent 84.2 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 99 companies
  • 220 White-collar workers in the food industry 79
  • 118 Food industry 58
  • 119 Food trade 11
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 6
  • 144 Agriculture 5
  • 207 White-collar workers in the chemical industry 5
  • 116 Chemical industry 4
  • 201 Independent retail 3
Show the 4 others
  • 140 Transport and logistics 2
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 1
  • 124 Construction 1
  • 140.03 Road transport and logistics for third parties 1

Source: the annual accounts at the National Bank. One filing can name more than one committee.

Division 10: Food products

Bankruptcies per year in division 10

Per year201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Bankruptcies11610310610712658681021349711590
Jobs lost1,188578385341893153150364582328440456

2026 through September. Every bankruptcy, also of companies that have since left the register. Source: Statbel (Directorate-General Statistics), NACE classification of 2008.

Staff cost per FTE in NACE division 10

1,383 employers
Median
€54,000
Belgium €61,400
Middle half
€43,400 to €65,600
half of the employers lie between
Place among sectors
67 of 78
sectors with a median staff cost per FTE, highest first
By size class
SizeMedianMiddle halfEmployers
fewer than 10 FTE €47,300 €38,200 to €57,100 562
10 to 49 FTE €54,200 €45,000 to €64,500 553
50 to 249 FTE €63,400 €56,500 to €75,700 211
250 FTE or more €74,100 €66,600 to €86,700 57

Running bankruptcies in the sector

NACE division 10
Number
227
Half have run longer than
22 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
32%
Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 108,606 bankruptcies of legal entities across Belgium, 49% were closed within five years for insufficient assets and 29% after liquidation, 3% were withdrawn. After five years, 20% were still open. Half had ended after 26 months (a quarter after 15, three quarters after 51 months).

This counts companies with this main activity in the register on 5 November 2026. The outcome itself is not measured by sector. The activity of a company that leaves the register after its bankruptcy is too often not kept to compare closed cases fairly.

Outcome by court and division

Foreign control in NACE division 10

5,286 registered companies

Subsidies in this sector

per register · legal entities with an enterprise number
  • Flemish subsidies €106.5m awarded 1,270 recipients · 2022 to 2025 · largest: Subsidie in het kader van land- en tuinbouwbeleid
  • Wallonia-Brussels Federation €745,871 paid 1 recipient · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Subventions aux centres de jeunes : fonctionnement et intervention dans la rémunération des animateurs (décret du 20 juillet 2000)
  • EU budget €3.5m attributed share 13 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Horizon Europe
  • EU research €3.4m EU contribution 15 recipients · 2013 to 2026 · largest: Horizon Europe

Explore every recipient in this sector

Insights on Manufacture of food products

Balance sheet and result. The median net result of €112,581 is above Belgium's €16,539. 4.3% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. Return on equity of 9.0% is below Belgium's 15.9%.

Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.3% is above Belgium's 0.2%.

Inflow and structure. Half of the companies are younger than 31.0 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. 5.6% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. Flanders holds 83.7% of the seats, against 64.7% in Belgium.

Staff and filing. 24.1% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 974 of the 2,126 FTE: 45.8%.

Direction. Median solvency rose from 43.0% in financial year 2020 to 45.1% in financial year 2025. The median net result fell from €147,047 in financial year 2020 to €112,581 in financial year 2025.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 05-11-2026 05:30.

Method and sources

Every company registered today counts under its main activities in the KBO. Establishment units do not count. Staff counts once, under the employer's first main activity, from its latest accounts and only where it fits the staff costs. The count follows the NACE 2025 classification, the version in which code 1091 exists.

The bankruptcies over five years count only companies still registered today, because the activity of a company that left the register is not kept. So they are fewer than the bankruptcies of those years, and the figure is not a probability for the future. Over twelve months the count is nearly complete, because a bankrupt company stays registered while its bankruptcy runs. A company with more than one main activity counts in each of those sectors.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other NACE divisions rests on an overview of every division, counted again each night. Each division is counted in the version of the NACE classification in which it exists. A standing such as "more than in 80%" compares with the other divisions that have the figure. A division's bankruptcy probability is the median over its companies with a score. Belgium here counts the 1,275,887 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 699,448 registrations publish no activity.

Each median is the value of the middle company, computed over the annual accounts of financial year 2025, and is shown only from 30 accounts. A share (loss-making, negative equity) counts that year's accounts with that trait. Accounts are late when they are filed after the statutory deadline. The direction per financial year follows the companies still registered today.