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Wholesale trade

NACE 46419 · division 46 Wholesale trade
Current registrations 231division 46: 61,500
Starters, 12 months 2,775division 46 · 4.5 per 100 · Belgium 7.5
Bankruptcies, 5 years 114.76% of the registrations · Belgium 1.61%
Employment (FTE) 236,259division 46 · financial year 2025
Median age 15.0 yearsdivision 46 · Belgium 10.7 years

Filed accounts of the division

NACE division 46 · financial year 2025 · 33,738 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
42.3%
Belgium 46.2%
Median net result
€17,244
Belgium €16,554
Median equity
€208,055
Belgium €98,547
Loss-making
28.8%
Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
13.4%
Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
9.9%
Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.69
Belgium 1.66

Staff cost per FTE in NACE division 46

9,643 employers
Median
€64,900
Belgium €61,400
Middle half
€51,300 to €84,400
half of the employers lie between
Place among sectors
45 of 78
sectors with a median staff cost per FTE, highest first
By size class
SizeMedianMiddle halfEmployers
fewer than 10 FTE €60,400 €47,700 to €78,500 6,078
10 to 49 FTE €70,000 €57,700 to €89,100 2,908
50 to 249 FTE €84,000 €67,400 to €119,200 558
250 FTE or more €80,100 €64,800 to €98,300 99

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 12 months
464
division 46 · 7.5 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 5.5

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
03-04-2026 MAC FASHION
BE 0680.590.996
02-03-2026 DYBA
BE 0669.937.923
12-02-2026 AMIM
BE 0878.148.027
14-11-2025 COMPAGNIE DE TEXTILE FLAMENT
BE 0895.419.767
16-09-2025 SIXSIXSIX CORPORATION
BE 0795.096.825
04-06-2025 LOJAEN
BE 0785.392.172
22-01-2025 DE KEMPEN EXCLUSIVE
BE 0425.630.456
22-01-2024 HY TEX
BE 0771.537.010

Every bankruptcy in division 46, last 90 days

Running bankruptcies in the sector

NACE division 46
Number
1,334
Half have run longer than
23 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
34%
Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 108,424 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entities across Belgium, 49% were closed within five years for insufficient assets and 28% after liquidation, 3% were withdrawn.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 3 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

Spread across the country

by region and province · 206 of 231 enterprises with a registered office on file
  • Flanders 116 · 56.3%
  • Brussels 54 · 26.2%
  • Wallonia 30 · 14.6%
  • Unknown 6 · 2.9%
fewer moremax 54

Largest employers

NACE division 46 · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 TOYOTA MOTOR EUROPEEvere 2,787 FTEfinancial year 2026
  2. 2 UCB PHARMAAnderlecht 1,961 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 DECATHLON BELGIUMEvere 1,734 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 ACTIEFLummen 1,570 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 H & M HENNES & MAURITZBrussels 1,318 FTEfinancial year 2025

Foreign control in NACE division 46

45,500 registered companies

Subsidies in this sector

per register · legal entities with an enterprise number
  • Flemish subsidies €349.3m awarded 6,718 recipients · 2022 to 2025 · largest: Dienstencheques
  • Federal transfers 66.3m amount as published 29 recipients · 2023 to 2025 · largest: Subsidie aan de Centrale Dienst voor Sociale en Culturele Actie
  • Wallonia-Brussels Federation €32.0m paid 31 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Subventions forfaitaires dans le fondamental
  • EU budget €531.5m attributed share 96 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Information and communication technology
  • EU research €52.8m eu contribution 83 recipients · 2007 to 2027 · largest: Horizon 2020

Explore every recipient in this sector

Insights on Wholesale trade

The number of starters per 100 companies in NACE division 46 is lower than that of 72% of the 87 NACE divisions with this figure.

This sector's historical share is higher than that of 98% of the 88 NACE divisions with this figure.

The median bankruptcy probability in NACE division 46 is 0.4%, against 0.2% for Belgium as a whole. It is computed over 39,187 scored companies.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 03-11-2026 05:30.

Method and sources

Every company registered today counts under its main activities in the KBO. Establishment units do not count. The count follows the NACE 2025 classification, the version in which code 46419 exists.

The historical share is the share of current registrations for which a bankruptcy opening was published in the past five years. A company with more than one main activity counts in each of those sectors. The historical share is not a future bankruptcy probability.

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 "higher than 80%" compares with the other divisions that have the figure. A division's bankruptcy probability is the median over its companies with a score. Their number is given with the figure.

The filed-accounts figures cover the whole NACE division 46, not only NACE 46419. There are too few filed annual accounts per five-digit code to compute them separately. Each median is the value of the middle company, computed over the division's 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.