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Manufacture of paper and paper products

NACE 17230 · division 17 Paper
Current registrations 58division 17: 413
Starters, 12 months 46.9 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Employment (FTE) 714 employers · latest accounts
Median age 8.0 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 74.1%43 of 58 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

No bankruptcy in the past twelve months.

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
2
3.45% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
2
34.5 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
18-02-2025 Renaissance Design
BE 0669.731.946
15-07-2024 Label-Pak-Int'l Co
BE 0402.690.550

Every bankruptcy in division 17, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 27 of 58 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 16 · 59.3%
  • Brussels 6 · 22.2%
  • Wallonia 4 · 14.8%
  • Abroad 1 · 3.7%
fewer moremax 6

The balance sheets of division 17 on the map, by municipality and down to the address

Largest employers

NACE 17230 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 ELEP-KOVERTOLommel 40.6 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 Label-Pak-Int'l CoWavre 23.9 FTEfinancial year 2023
  3. 3 ELEPLommel 4.5 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 BOXMAKERTielt-Winge 2.0 FTEfinancial year 2025

Companies

58 with this main activity

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 11 companies
  • 222 White-collar workers in paper and cardboard processing 7
  • 136 Paper and cardboard processing 6
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 3
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 2
  • 130 Printing, graphic arts and newspapers 1
  • 201 Independent retail 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 products17220 25 0 0 873
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
Median solvency
48.8%
Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€60,532
Belgium €16,520
Median equity
€1.1m
Belgium €98,421
Loss-making
26.7%
Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
8.4%
Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
10.2%
Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.73
Belgium 1.66
Filed late
34.8%
financial year 2024, 210 filings · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
4.0%
of 276 companies with annual accounts · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year20182019202020212022202320242025
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 year20152016201720182019202020222023202420252026
Bankruptcies28356124551
Jobs lost836338624891218781071

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
Median
€62,700
Belgium €61,400
Middle half
€55,400 to €75,700
half of the employers lie between
Place among sectors
51 of 78
sectors with a median staff cost per FTE, highest first
By size class
SizeMedianMiddle halfEmployers
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 companies
Companies with a foreign parent
7.2%
20 of 278; Belgium 0.3%
Staff at those companies
36%
3,455 of 9,529 FTE; Belgium 14%

Main parent countries: Finland (3), Netherlands (3) and United States (3).Show on the map by municipality

Subsidies in this sector

per register · legal entities with an enterprise number
  • Flemish subsidies €96.0m awarded 78 recipients · 2022 to 2025 · largest: Subsidie voor bedrijven ter compensatie van indirecte emissiekosten
  • Federal transfers 69,800 amount as published 1 recipient · 2025 · largest: Inkomensoverdracht R&D naar bedrijven
  • EU budget €198,192 attributed share 1 recipient · 2023 · largest: Horizon Europe
  • EU research €623,810 EU contribution 4 recipients · 2008 to 2023 · largest: Seventh Framework Programme

Explore every recipient in this sector

Insights on Manufacture of paper and paper products

Inflow and structure. 53.4% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. This activity holds 14.0% of the registrations of Paper.

Staff and filing. The 4 largest employers hold 71 of the 71 FTE: 100.0%.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 06-11-2026 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 17230 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 1,276,581 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 698,987 registrations publish no activity.

For NACE 17230, 17 annual accounts of financial year 2025 were filed. That is too few for a median, which needs at least 30.

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