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Agents in the wholesale of industrial machinery, ships and aircraft

Current registrations 1,058division 46: 61,491
Starters, 12 months 514.8 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 87.6 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 1,406147 employers · latest accounts
Median age 12.8 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 89.4%946 of 1,058 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

9 companies file their annual accounts outside the standard format, for example in a sector format. Their figures and staff are missing from the employment, the medians and the largest employers.

Show the 9 companies

Filed accounts

NACE 46140 · financial year 2025 · 620 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
44.1%
division 42.2% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€17,790
division €17,217 · Belgium €16,520
Median equity
€130,129
division €207,401 · Belgium €98,421
Loss-making
26.6%
division 28.8% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
11.5%
division 13.4% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
12.4%
division 9.9% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.75
division 1.69 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
38.7%
financial year 2024, 638 filings · division 39.2% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
6.2%
of 674 companies with annual accounts · division 6.4% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 40.1%43.3%41.8%43.6%46.7%44.1%
Median net result €14,039€17,703€18,551€20,173€16,604€17,790

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

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
22
2.08% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
25
23.6 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
23-07-2026 INTERSOURCE MANAGEMENT GROUP EUROPE
BE 0861.917.848
30-06-2026 MARBAL
BE 0717.909.668
29-06-2026 ETRACON
BE 0454.088.474
19-05-2026 Pure Services Belgium
BE 1017.243.750
24-04-2026 M & T SOLUTIONS
BE 0553.754.192
20-02-2026 L&K Management
BE 1012.891.915
24-12-2025 CONCEPT N
BE 1009.432.082
05-11-2025 Soly Belgium Operations
BE 0787.599.022

Every bankruptcy in division 46, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 842 of 1,058 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 540 · 64.1%
  • Wallonia 200 · 23.8%
  • Brussels 64 · 7.6%
  • Abroad 38 · 4.5%
fewer moremax 173

Largest employers

NACE 46140 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 ICT Field ServicesMechelen 122 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 Challenge Airlines (BE) S.AGrâce-Hollogne 93.5 FTEfinancial year 2024
  3. 3 TE TRANSJette 81.2 FTEfinancial year 2026
  4. 4 VAN DEN DORPE MATERIAL HANDLINGOudenaarde 73.5 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 Everllence BelgiumAntwerp 65.0 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 180 companies
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 109
  • 149.04 Metal trade 41
  • 209 White-collar workers in metal manufacturing 18
  • 149.01 Electricians: installation and distribution 13
  • 111 Metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 12
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 11
  • 201 Independent retail 9
  • 226 White-collar workers in international trade, transport and logistics 8
Show the 12 others
  • 149 Sectors related to metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 7
  • 124 Construction 3
  • 140 Transport and logistics 2
  • 140.03 Road transport and logistics for third parties 2
  • 109 Clothing and garment industry 1
  • 119 Food trade 1
  • 121 Cleaning 1
  • 144 Agriculture 1
  • 205 White-collar workers in coal mines 1
  • 210 White-collar workers in the steel industry 1
  • 215 White-collar workers in the clothing and garment industry 1
  • 314 Hairdressing and beauty care 1

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

Division 46: Wholesale trade

Related activities

8 other activities
Show all 8 activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Wholesale trade46120 523 17 2 1,206
Wholesale trade46110 404 21 2 143

Bankruptcies per year in division 46

Per year201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Bankruptcies803710738687722486417583541625634425
Jobs lost1,6291,6551,3611,2161,2401,0548901,0299351,3831,271931

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 46

9,639 employers
Median
€64,900
Belgium €61,400
Middle half
€51,300 to €84,400
half of the employers lie between
Place among sectors
44 of 78
sectors with a median staff cost per FTE, highest first
By size class
SizeMedianMiddle halfEmployers
fewer than 10 FTE €60,500 €47,700 to €78,600 6,072
10 to 49 FTE €70,000 €57,700 to €89,100 2,910
50 to 249 FTE €84,000 €67,400 to €119,200 558
250 FTE or more €80,100 €64,800 to €98,300 99

Running bankruptcies in the sector

NACE division 46
Number
1,337
Half have run longer than
23 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
34%
Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 108,562 bankruptcies of legal entities across Belgium, 49% were closed within five years for insufficient assets and 28% 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 6 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 46

45,472 registered companies

Subsidies in this sector

per register · legal entities with an enterprise number
  • Flemish subsidies €266.7m awarded 6,714 recipients · 2022 to 2025 · largest: Dienstencheques
  • Federal transfers 21.5m amount as published 14 recipients · 2023 to 2025 · largest: Ondersteuning aan de bijdrage van de organisaties van de civiele maatschappij en institutionele actoren in de realisatie van de doelen van de gemeenschappelijke strategische kaders (cf. art. 2.14.6 en 2.14.10 van de wetsbepalingen)
  • Wallonia-Brussels Federation €1.3m paid 17 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Conventions et contrats programmes indexés dans le domaine des centres culturels
  • EU budget €531.5m attributed share 96 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Information and communication technology
  • EU research €52.9m EU contribution 83 recipients · 2007 to 2027 · largest: Horizon 2020

Explore every recipient in this sector

Insights on Agents in the wholesale of industrial machinery, ships and aircraft

Balance sheet and result. Return on equity of 12.4% is below Belgium's 15.9%.

Bankruptcies. In 12 months, 7.6 of 1,000 companies went bankrupt, against 6.2 in Belgium. That is more than in 78% of the 88 NACE divisions. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.4% is above Belgium's 0.2%.

Inflow and structure. Half of the companies are younger than 12.8 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. 20.4% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. In 12 months, 4.8 of 100 companies started, against 8.9 in Belgium. That is fewer than in 69% of the 87 NACE divisions.

Staff and filing. The 5 largest employers hold 435 of the 1,406 FTE: 31.0%.

Direction. Median solvency rose from 40.1% in financial year 2020 to 44.1% in financial year 2025. The median net result rose from €14,039 in financial year 2020 to €17,790 in financial year 2025.

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 46140 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.

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. Missing or 90 days late counts the companies with accounts missing today, or whose latest were filed more than 90 days after the deadline. The dossier follows the same rule.