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Wholesale trade

Current registrations 114division 46: 61,487
Starters, 12 months 32.6 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 217.5 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 73813 employers · latest accounts
Median age 24.5 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 77.2%88 of 114 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

Filed accounts

NACE 46498 · financial year 2025 · 71 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
35.7%
division 42.2% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€5,769
division €17,193 · Belgium €16,490
Median equity
€117,854
division €206,897 · Belgium €98,313
Loss-making
33.8%
division 28.8% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
22.5%
division 13.4% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
5.4%
division 9.9% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.37
division 1.69 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
44.2%
financial year 2024, 77 filings · division 39.2% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
12.0%
of 83 companies with annual accounts · division 6.4% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 31.0%37.3%37.6%35.2%34.2%35.7%
Median net result €340€5,156€2,716€918€8,635€5,769

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

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
2
1.75% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
6
52.6 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
10-06-2026 FL-Trading
BE 0413.548.909
30-04-2026 DAVIDTS
BE 0423.212.582

Every bankruptcy in division 46, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 100 of 114 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 59 · 59.0%
  • Wallonia 16 · 16.0%
  • Brussels 15 · 15.0%
  • Abroad 10 · 10.0%
fewer moremax 18

Largest employers

NACE 46498 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 Samsonite EuropeOudenaarde 685 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 THULE ORGANIZATION SOLUTIONS SA/NVMont-Saint-Guibert 15.1 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 KAAIAntwerp 9.4 FTEfinancial year 2026
  4. 4 AGEMYLo-Reninge 6.5 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 DAVIDTSLiège 4.5 FTEfinancial year 2023

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 25 companies
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 12
  • 201 Independent retail 11
  • 128 Hides, leather and substitutes 4
  • 111 Metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 1
  • 207 White-collar workers in the chemical industry 1
  • 209 White-collar workers in metal manufacturing 1
  • 215 White-collar workers in the clothing and garment industry 1
  • 226 White-collar workers in international trade, transport and logistics 1

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

Division 46: Wholesale trade

Related activities

27 other activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Wholesale of pharmaceutical and medical goods46460 1,864 83 7 17,391
Wholesale of clothing, excluding workwear and underwear46423 1,263 50 11 5,432
Wholesale of other household goods46499 1,144 32 4 2,223
Wholesale of electrical household appliances and audio-video equipment46431 963 35 10 3,564
Wholesale of perfume and cosmetics46450 774 42 5 2,584
Wholesale of household textiles and bedding46412 667 7 5 1,696
Show all 27 activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Wholesale of non-electrical household articles46494 661 9 9 2,364
Wholesale trade46496 567 16 6 3,188
Wholesale trade46480 548 16 1 486
Wholesale trade46442 462 16 4 1,983
Wholesale trade46492 325 6 3 1,488
Wholesale trade46471 324 17 7 787
Wholesale trade46474 266 9 1 477
Wholesale trade46419 232 12 4 244
Wholesale trade46497 228 22 0 336
Wholesale trade46432 222 4 2 1,140
Wholesale trade46495 203 10 4 264
Wholesale trade46425 193 3 0 425
Wholesale trade46493 193 15 1 643
Wholesale trade46421 191 9 0 378
Wholesale trade46411 180 8 4 317
Wholesale trade46491 161 6 1 867
Wholesale trade46472 130 3 1 184
Wholesale trade46424 94 7 1 73
Wholesale trade46473 63 2 1 68
Wholesale trade46441 60 1 0 76
Wholesale trade46422 41 1 1 40

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

9,635 employers
Median
€64,900
Belgium €61,400
Middle half
€51,300 to €84,500
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 6,070
10 to 49 FTE €70,000 €57,700 to €89,100 2,911
50 to 249 FTE €84,000 €67,400 to €119,700 556
250 FTE or more €80,200 €64,700 to €98,300 98

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 108,725 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 11 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

45,461 registered companies

Subsidies in this sector

per register · legal entities with an enterprise number
  • Flemish subsidies €266.7m awarded 6,710 recipients · 2022 to 2025 · largest: Dienstencheques
  • Wallonia-Brussels Federation €1.3m paid 17 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Conventions et contrats programmes indexés dans le domaine des centres culturels
  • 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)
  • 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. 22.5% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. Return on equity of 5.4% is below Belgium's 15.9%. The median net result of €5,769 is below Belgium's €16,490.

Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.4% is above Belgium's 0.2%.

Inflow and structure. Half of the companies are younger than 24.5 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. 12.3% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. Brussels holds 16.7% of the seats, against 12.5% in Belgium.

Staff and filing. 44.2% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 721 of the 738 FTE: 97.6%.

Direction. Median solvency rose from 31.0% in financial year 2020 to 35.7% in financial year 2025. The median net result rose from €340 in financial year 2020 to €5,769 in financial year 2025.

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 46498 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.

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.