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Wholesale trade

Current registrations 403division 46: 61,491
Starters, 12 months 4310.7 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 49.9 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 83857 employers · latest accounts
Median age 9.1 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 76.9%310 of 403 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

Filed accounts

NACE 46370 · financial year 2025 · 209 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
33.5%
division 42.2% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€17,637
division €17,217 · Belgium €16,520
Median equity
€134,990
division €207,401 · Belgium €98,421
Loss-making
26.8%
division 28.8% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
13.9%
division 13.4% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
14.8%
division 9.9% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.38
division 1.69 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
38.5%
financial year 2024, 218 filings · division 39.2% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
8.2%
of 232 companies with annual accounts · division 6.4% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 33.6%28.3%29.1%29.1%28.4%33.5%
Median net result €14,950€15,029€15,489€12,986€17,423€17,637

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

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
8
1.99% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
7
17.4 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
03-04-2026 M.G.H.
BE 0892.545.104
16-03-2026 FAVORITA CAFFE
BE 0781.432.889
11-03-2026 SAM e-commerce
BE 0801.093.405
12-01-2026 MR. BEANY
BE 0692.790.925
17-09-2025 2 for T
BE 0779.629.184
11-07-2025 Réé
BE 0696.890.857
01-04-2025 AS Group-Food
BE 0652.967.376
21-01-2025 Q AND G
BE 0560.746.409

Every bankruptcy in division 46, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 340 of 403 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 177 · 52.1%
  • Wallonia 61 · 17.9%
  • Brussels 53 · 15.6%
  • Abroad 49 · 14.4%
fewer moremax 70

Largest employers

NACE 46370 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 JACOBS DOUWE EGBERTS BELGIUMBrussels 138 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 MIKO COFFEE SERVICETurnhout 94.7 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 SasBeerse 83.2 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 The Spice FactoryBraine-l'Alleud 75.9 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 CLARYSOostkamp 46.8 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 93 companies
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 33
  • 119 Food trade 32
  • 201 Independent retail 20
  • 220 White-collar workers in the food industry 17
  • 118 Food industry 11
  • 226 White-collar workers in international trade, transport and logistics 7
  • 302 Hotels and catering 7
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 2
Show the 2 others
  • 149.01 Electricians: installation and distribution 1
  • 149.04 Metal trade 1

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

Division 46: Wholesale trade

Related activities

16 other activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Wholesale of beverages, general range46349 1,537 96 14 3,537
Wholesale of other food products46389 1,385 84 17 4,892
Wholesale of wines and spirits46341 1,027 71 6 707
Wholesale of fruit and vegetables, excluding potatoes46319 946 36 8 4,714
Wholesale of meat and meat products, excluding game and poultry46321 735 19 9 6,903
Non-specialised wholesale46392 679 29 5 5,933
Show all 16 activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Wholesale trade46360 450 21 7 2,930
Wholesale trade46331 394 20 0 2,052
Wholesale trade46323 228 10 3 1,163
Wholesale trade46391 220 13 2 940
Wholesale trade46382 193 13 0 895
Wholesale trade46322 180 8 0 1,042
Wholesale trade46311 140 6 1 1,054
Wholesale trade46350 98 5 1 428
Wholesale trade46332 68 9 0 159
Wholesale trade46381 53 4 0 158

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 Wholesale trade

Balance sheet and result. Solvency of 33.5% is below Belgium's 46.1%. Liquidity of 1.38 is below Belgium's 1.66. 13.9% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium.

Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.5% is above Belgium's 0.2%.

Inflow and structure. 15.6% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. Brussels holds 18.2% of the seats, against 12.5% in Belgium. In 12 months, 10.7 of 100 companies started, against 8.9 in Belgium. That is more than in 79% of the 87 NACE divisions.

Staff and filing. The 5 largest employers hold 438 of the 838 FTE: 52.3%.

Direction. The median net result rose from €14,950 in financial year 2020 to €17,637 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 46370 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.