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Wholesale trade

Current registrations 383division 46: 61,492
Starters, 12 months 123.1 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Employment (FTE) 2,12185 employers · latest accounts
Median age 18.9 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 82.2%315 of 383 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

No bankruptcy in the past twelve months.

Filed accounts

NACE 46630 · financial year 2025 · 274 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
46.0%
division 42.2% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€67,864
division €17,196 · Belgium €16,500
Median equity
€736,978
division €207,129 · Belgium €98,350
Loss-making
19.7%
division 28.8% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
8.1%
division 13.4% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
10.9%
division 9.9% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.91
division 1.69 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
34.8%
financial year 2024, 282 filings · division 39.2% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
5.2%
of 291 companies with annual accounts · division 6.4% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 36.8%39.8%41.0%42.9%44.1%46.0%
Median net result €48,155€72,489€88,914€71,950€55,518€67,864

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

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
1
0.26% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
3
7.8 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
05-09-2024 TOOLING SERVICES
BE 0748.862.368

Every bankruptcy in division 46, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 370 of 383 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 231 · 62.4%
  • Wallonia 78 · 21.1%
  • Brussels 13 · 3.5%
  • Abroad 48 · 13.0%
fewer moremax 68

Largest employers

NACE 46630 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 Bergerat MonnoyeurOverijse 405 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 KOMATSU EUROPE INTERNATIONALVilvoorde 349 FTEfinancial year 2026
  3. 3 HILTI BELGIUMAnderlecht 265 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 SODEMATAuderghem 106 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 VYTECH MENENMenen 76.1 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 161 companies
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 109
  • 149.04 Metal trade 84
  • 209 White-collar workers in metal manufacturing 13
  • 111 Metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 12
  • 149 Sectors related to metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 9
  • 201 Independent retail 8
  • 226 White-collar workers in international trade, transport and logistics 5
  • 140.03 Road transport and logistics for third parties 3
Show the 6 others
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 2
  • 112 Garages 2
  • 124 Construction 2
  • 132 Technical farming and horticulture work 1
  • 149.01 Electricians: installation and distribution 1
  • 323 Building management, estate agents and domestic staff 1

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

Division 46: Wholesale trade

Related activities

11 other activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Wholesale of other machinery and equipment46649 2,452 62 11 6,552
Wholesale of electrical equipment, including installation materials46643 1,220 35 12 7,993
Wholesale of machine tools46620 815 16 4 6,035
Wholesale trade46610 795 21 0 1,947
Wholesale trade46646 188 9 0 465
Wholesale trade46644 152 6 2 778
Show all 11 activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Wholesale trade46647 144 3 0 670
Wholesale trade46641 130 10 0 89
Wholesale trade46645 116 5 0 245
Wholesale trade46648 69 0 1 65
Wholesale trade46642 56 6 0 161

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

9,636 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 6,070
10 to 49 FTE €70,000 €57,700 to €89,100 2,911
50 to 249 FTE €84,000 €67,300 to €119,500 557
250 FTE or more €80,200 €64,700 to €98,300 98

Running bankruptcies in the sector

NACE division 46
Number
1,338
Half have run longer than
23 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
34%
Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 108,642 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 8 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

45,467 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. The median net result of €67,864 is above Belgium's €16,500. 8.1% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. Return on equity of 10.9% is below Belgium's 15.9%.

Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.3% is above Belgium's 0.2%.

Inflow and structure. Half of the companies are younger than 18.9 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. 3.1% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. In 12 months, 3.1 of 100 companies started, against 8.9 in Belgium. That is fewer than in 84% of the 87 NACE divisions.

Staff and filing. The 5 largest employers hold 1,201 of the 2,121 FTE: 56.6%.

Direction. Median solvency rose from 36.8% in financial year 2020 to 46.0% in financial year 2025. The median net result rose from €48,155 in financial year 2020 to €67,864 in financial year 2025.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 08-11-2026 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 46630 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 1,276,474 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 699,509 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.