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Wholesale trade

Current registrations 56division 46: 61,492
Starters, 12 months 610.7 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Employment (FTE) 16113 employers · latest accounts
Median age 12.5 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 73.2%41 of 56 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

No bankruptcy in the past five years.

Filed accounts

NACE 46642 · financial year 2025 · 32 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
38.9%
division 42.2% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€43,239
division €17,196 · Belgium €16,500
Median equity
€431,065
division €207,129 · Belgium €98,350
Loss-making
25.0%
division 28.8% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
6.3%
division 13.4% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
10.4%
division 9.9% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.95
division 1.69 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
14.7%
financial year 2024, 34 filings · division 39.2% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
11.4%
of 35 companies with annual accounts · division 6.4% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 38.1%40.8%40.0%52.2%51.1%38.9%
Median net result €66,786€117,576€96,041€157,478€46,112€43,239

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

Spread across the country

by region and province · 54 of 56 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 39 · 72.2%
  • Brussels 2 · 3.7%
  • Wallonia 2 · 3.7%
  • Abroad 11 · 20.4%
fewer moremax 18

Largest employers

NACE 46642 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 METTLER - TOLEDOZaventem 70.1 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 STASGlabbeek 27.1 FTEfinancial year 2024
  3. 3 TOPA PACKAGINGKontich 13.1 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 Espera BelgiumHolsbeek 11.7 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 Sitasoft BelgiumSint-Pieters-Leeuw 8.8 FTEfinancial year 2025

Companies

56 with this main activity

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 25 companies
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 18
  • 149.04 Metal trade 5
  • 209 White-collar workers in metal manufacturing 4
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 1
  • 126 Furnishing and woodworking 1
  • 149 Sectors related to metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 1
  • 149.01 Electricians: installation and distribution 1
  • 201 Independent retail 1
Show the 1 others
  • 207 White-collar workers in the chemical industry 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 trade46630 383 12 0 2,121
Wholesale trade46646 188 9 0 465
Show all 11 activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Wholesale trade46644 152 6 2 778
Wholesale trade46647 144 3 0 670
Wholesale trade46641 130 10 0 89
Wholesale trade46645 116 5 0 245
Wholesale trade46648 69 0 1 65

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 €43,239 is above Belgium's €16,500. 6.3% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. Return on equity of 10.4% is below Belgium's 15.9%.

Inflow and structure. 1.8% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. Half of the companies are younger than 12.5 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. Flanders holds 90.7% of the seats, against 64.7% in Belgium.

Staff and filing. 14.7% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 131 of the 161 FTE: 81.4%.

Direction. The median net result fell from €66,786 in financial year 2020 to €43,239 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 46642 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.