Manufacture of paper and paper products
No starter in the past twelve months. No bankruptcy in the past five years.
Spread across the country
by region and province · 24 of 25 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat- Flanders
- Wallonia
- Abroad
The balance sheets of division 17 on the map, by municipality and down to the address
Largest employers
NACE 17220 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts- 1 OntexBuggenhout 579 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 2 SOFIDEL BENELUXDuffel 158 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 3 WAWWevelgem 34.4 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 4 PACARBELVerviers 33.4 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 5 HAPPY PAPEREnghien 28.8 FTEfinancial year 2023
Companies
25 with this main activity- Ontex Buggenhout · 579 FTE
- ESSITY PLD BELGIUM Verviers · 351 FTE
- EUROFILTERS Pelt · 187 FTE
- SOFIDEL BENELUX Duffel · 158 FTE
- Essity Belgium Machelen (Brab.) · 87.0 FTE
- WAW Wevelgem · 34.4 FTE
- PACARBEL Verviers · 33.4 FTE
- HAPPY PAPER Enghien · 28.8 FTE
- KIMBERLY - CLARK Machelen (Brab.) · 21.2 FTE
- SK packaging Merelbeke-Melle · 10.0 FTE
- GAUTIER-INTOCEL Beerse · 9.2 FTE
- EUROPOCHETTE Beveren-Kruibeke-Zwijndrecht · 5.7 FTE
- ENVELNOR EXPORT Manage · 2.0 FTE
- konos Zaventem · 1.0 FTE
- ABZ COMPANY Waregem
- BAUSAC Saint-Ghislain
- BTW EENHEID GROEP POCHETTE Beveren-Kruibeke-Zwijndrecht
- D-MANUFACTURING Antwerp
- EUTIMA Buggenhout
- FamPro Tissue Belgium Machelen (Brab.)
- KIMBERLY-CLARCK EUROPE LTD Reigate - Surrey
- ONTEX BELGIUM Buggenhout
- Pacarbel unité de TVA Verviers
- PATICON Lebbeke
- QUICKPACK HAUSHALT UND HYGIENE GmbH RENNINGEN
Joint committees
from the latest accounts of 11 companies- 136 Paper and cardboard processing 6
- 222 White-collar workers in paper and cardboard processing 6
- 120 Textile industry 2
- 129 Pulp, paper and cardboard production 2
- 214 White-collar workers in the textile industry 2
- 221 White-collar workers in the paper industry 2
- 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 1
Source: the annual accounts at the National Bank. One filing can name more than one committee.
Division 17: Paper
Related activities
4 other activities| Activity | Registrations | Starters, 12 months | Bankruptcies, 12 months | FTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manufacture of paper and paper products17210 | 152 | 3 | 1 | 2,437 |
| Manufacture of paper and paper products17250 | 94 | 3 | 0 | 2,075 |
| Manufacture of paper and paper products17230 | 58 | 4 | 0 | 71 |
| Manufacture of paper and paper products17240 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 251 |
Filed accounts of the division
NACE division 17 · financial year 2025 · 251 filed annual accounts| Per financial year | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median solvency | - | - | 40.9% | 42.5% | 41.9% | 47.1% | 43.5% | 48.8% |
| Median net result | - | - | €46,942 | €48,631 | €44,388 | €46,599 | €47,562 | €56,830 |
| Filed late | 31.7% | 36.5% | 34.3% | 32.5% | 35.4% | 29.7% | 34.8% | - |
Hold your customer's or competitor's figures against them in the Sector benchmark
Bankruptcies per year in division 17
| Per year | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bankruptcies | 2 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 1 |
| Jobs lost | 83 | 63 | 386 | 24 | 89 | 1 | 2 | 18 | 78 | 107 | 1 |
2026 through February. 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 17
125 employers| Size | Median | Middle half | Employers |
|---|---|---|---|
| fewer than 10 FTE | €57,100 | €49,600 to €69,900 | 35 |
| 10 to 49 FTE | €60,300 | €53,400 to €69,100 | 51 |
| 50 to 249 FTE | €70,500 | €63,800 to €79,300 | 28 |
Employers with the highest staff cost per FTE in this division All sectors by staff cost In the Analysis workbench
Foreign control in NACE division 17
278 registered companiesSubsidies in this sector
per register · legal entities with an enterprise number- Flemish subsidies €96.0m awarded
- Federal transfers 69,800 amount as published
- EU budget €198,192 attributed share
- EU research €623,810 EU contribution
Insights on Manufacture of paper and paper products
Inflow and structure. This activity holds 6.1% of the registrations of Paper.
Staff and filing. The 5 largest employers hold 833 of the 873 FTE: 95.4%.
The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 11-11-2026 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 17220 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 1,276,472 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 699,781 registrations publish no activity.
For NACE 17220, 17 annual accounts of financial year 2025 were filed. That is too few for a median, which needs at least 30.