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Wholesale trade

Current registrations 165division 46: 61,487
Starters, 12 months 127.3 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 16.1 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 31730 employers · latest accounts
Median age 11.4 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 78.8%130 of 165 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

Filed accounts

NACE 46835 · financial year 2025 · 105 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
33.1%
division 42.2% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€8,459
division €17,193 · Belgium €16,490
Median equity
€192,784
division €206,897 · Belgium €98,313
Loss-making
34.3%
division 28.8% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
11.4%
division 13.4% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
9.0%
division 9.9% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.40
division 1.69 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
40.0%
financial year 2024, 110 filings · division 39.2% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
9.0%
of 122 companies with annual accounts · division 6.4% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 27.5%31.1%29.8%31.0%35.2%33.1%
Median net result €24,218€24,963€11,083€5,762€7,092€8,459

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

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
6
3.64% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
8
48.5 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
11-05-2026 TEGEL-TRENDS
BE 0674.594.715
22-10-2025 PLINTENHAL
BE 1005.394.706
21-10-2025 GENCO ITALIA IMPORTING
BE 0684.949.761
08-10-2025 CARROHOME
BE 0550.600.209
20-08-2025 Panjsher
BE 1008.225.423
29-07-2025 GENCO ITALIA IMPORTING
BE 0684.949.761
24-11-2023 ELABO CONCEPT
BE 0655.951.711

Every bankruptcy in division 46, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 162 of 165 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 118 · 72.8%
  • Wallonia 27 · 16.7%
  • Brussels 6 · 3.7%
  • Abroad 11 · 6.8%
fewer moremax 31

Largest employers

NACE 46835 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 FloorifyRoeselare 36.5 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 STEYLAERTSLier 36.4 FTEfinancial year 2024
  3. 3 Oneflor EuropeKortrijk 31.6 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 SERRY tegels, natuursteen en parketBoortmeerbeek 25.2 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 CarimarBraine-l'Alleud 23.6 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 47 companies
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 36
  • 124 Construction 20
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 7
  • 201 Independent retail 5
  • 116 Chemical industry 2
  • 207 White-collar workers in the chemical industry 2
  • 102.08 Quarries 1
  • 106.02 Concrete industry 1
Show the 5 others
  • 120 Textile industry 1
  • 125 Wood industry 1
  • 125.03 Timber trade 1
  • 214 White-collar workers in the textile 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

18 other activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Wholesale of construction materials, general range46831 1,765 43 12 11,694
Wholesale of diamonds and other precious stones46861 1,213 34 15 920
Wholesale of industrial chemicals46851 1,209 39 2 5,332
Wholesale of timber46832 839 18 4 5,118
Wholesale of solid, liquid and gaseous fuels and related products46810 826 44 5 2,871
Wholesale trade46820 718 41 2 1,910
Show all 18 activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Wholesale trade46841 496 12 2 3,268
Wholesale trade46842 460 18 2 4,096
Wholesale trade46869 422 16 1 1,477
Wholesale trade46872 407 16 7 899
Wholesale trade46839 380 17 2 982
Wholesale trade46833 231 9 0 925
Wholesale trade46852 163 8 0 308
Wholesale trade46836 156 3 1 470
Wholesale trade46879 124 15 1 126
Wholesale trade46890 58 38 0 6
Wholesale trade46834 28 3 1 101
Wholesale trade46871 18 2 1 8

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
1,336
Half have run longer than
23 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
34%
Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 108,651 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 10 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. The median net result of €8,459 is below Belgium's €16,490. Return on equity of 9.0% is below Belgium's 15.9%. 34.3% of the annual accounts close with a loss, against 26.7% in Belgium.

Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.6% is above Belgium's 0.2%.

Inflow and structure. 1.8% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. Half of the companies are younger than 11.4 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. Flanders holds 78.1% of the seats, against 64.7% in Belgium.

Staff and filing. The 5 largest employers hold 153 of the 317 FTE: 48.4%.

Direction. Median solvency rose from 27.5% in financial year 2020 to 33.1% in financial year 2025. The median net result fell from €24,218 in financial year 2020 to €8,459 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 46835 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.