Retail trade
Activities
NACE division 47 · 72 activities| Activity | Registrations | Starters, 12 months | Bankruptcies, 12 months | FTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other non-specialised retail sale47120 | 12,391 | 1,228 | 57 | 17,472 |
| Retail sale of cars and light vans (up to 3.5 tonnes)47811 | 10,457 | 858 | 110 | 22,398 |
| Non-specialised retail sale with food, beverages or tobacco predominating47110 | 10,332 | 844 | 184 | 72,327 |
| Retail sale of clothing and accessories for women, men, children and babies (general range)47716 | 6,390 | 803 | 69 | 10,661 |
| Retail sale of pharmaceutical products47730 | 5,194 | 149 | 8 | 11,476 |
| Other retail sale of new goods47789 | 4,196 | 299 | 17 | 2,325 |
| Retail sale of fruit and vegetables47210 | 3,668 | 122 | 32 | 1,628 |
| Retail sale of flowers, plants, seeds and fertilisers47761 | 3,344 | 187 | 15 | 2,346 |
| Retail sale of information and communication equipment47400 | 3,174 | 148 | 30 | 3,911 |
| Retail sale of solid, liquid and gaseous fuels, excluding motor fuels47781 | 3,071 | 21 | 18 | 932 |
| Retail sale of meat and meat products, excluding game and poultry47221 | 3,007 | 141 | 28 | 6,955 |
| Retail sale of household furniture47551 | 2,563 | 120 | 40 | 7,694 |
Show all 72 activities
Filed accounts
NACE division 47 · financial year 2025 · 47,061 filed annual accounts| Per financial year | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median solvency | - | - | 32.1% | 33.6% | 33.1% | 33.4% | 33.9% | 34.7% |
| Median net result | - | - | €13,050 | €14,333 | €10,127 | €9,610 | €9,704 | €10,220 |
| Filed late | 47.4% | 54.3% | 52.4% | 50.6% | 49.6% | 48.4% | 46.8% | - |
Hold your customer's or competitor's figures against them in the Sector benchmark
Staff cost per FTE in NACE division 47
11,350 employers| Size | Median | Middle half | Employers |
|---|---|---|---|
| fewer than 10 FTE | €50,500 | €39,600 to €64,200 | 8,085 |
| 10 to 49 FTE | €46,300 | €38,700 to €60,900 | 2,867 |
| 50 to 249 FTE | €57,600 | €45,000 to €72,100 | 320 |
| 250 FTE or more | €58,400 | €47,500 to €70,900 | 78 |
Employers with the highest staff cost per FTE in this division All sectors by staff cost In the Analysis workbench
Bankruptcies
Bankruptcies per year in division 47
| Per year | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bankruptcies | 1,394 | 1,382 | 1,499 | 1,374 | 1,438 | 931 | 746 | 1,076 | 1,169 | 1,299 | 1,294 | 914 |
| Jobs lost | 2,893 | 3,468 | 2,913 | 2,713 | 2,892 | 4,088 | 2,112 | 2,125 | 4,156 | 3,933 | 3,511 | 2,092 |
2026 through September. Every bankruptcy, also of companies that have since left the register. Source: Statbel (Directorate-General Statistics), NACE classification of 2008.
Recent bankruptcies
| Date | Company |
|---|---|
| 13-11-2026 | BARAKA-LAND
BE 0694.797.736 |
| 13-11-2026 | Bechet, Jacqueline
BE 0750.413.180 · sole trader · Couvin |
| 12-11-2026 | Charcuterie Mosane
BE 0679.941.393 |
| 12-11-2026 | ZB 21
BE 0713.807.855 |
| 12-11-2026 | Vanderlinden, Louise
BE 0751.607.369 · sole trader · Leuven |
| 12-11-2026 | Tilia
BE 0781.296.396 |
| 12-11-2026 | BRAND PARTNERS
BE 0811.559.903 |
| 12-11-2026 | M&E BROTHERS
BE 0831.148.656 |
Running bankruptcies in the sector
NACE division 47Measured nationally: Of 108,810 bankruptcies of legal entities across Belgium, 49% were closed within five years for insufficient assets and 29% 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 14 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.
Spread across the country
by region and province · 67,393 of 115,384 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat- Flanders
- Wallonia
- Brussels
- Abroad
This sector's balance sheets on the map, by municipality and down to the address
Largest employers
NACE division 47 · staff from the latest accounts- 1 Colruyt Food RetailHalle 16,584 FTEfinancial year 2026
- 2 CARREFOUR BELGIUMZaventem 6,366 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 3 Colruyt GroupHalle 4,183 FTEfinancial year 2026
- 4 Delhaize Le Lion/De LeeuwAsse 3,423 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 5 IKEA BELGIUMZaventem 3,339 FTEfinancial year 2025
Joint committees
from the latest accounts of 18,202 companies- 201 Independent retail 9,724
- 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 3,086
- 313 Pharmacies and pricing offices 2,167
- 119 Food trade 2,087
- 112 Garages 1,824
- 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 1,439
- 149.04 Metal trade 615
- 302 Hotels and catering 530
Show the 12 others
- 124 Construction 479
- 109 Clothing and garment industry 304
- 202.01 Medium-sized food businesses 288
- 149.01 Electricians: installation and distribution 287
- 126 Furnishing and woodworking 257
- 118 Food industry 231
- 207 White-collar workers in the chemical industry 218
- 149 Sectors related to metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 172
- 311 Large retail businesses 132
- 127 Fuel trade 128
- 202 White-collar workers in food retail 112
- 116 Chemical industry 103
Source: the annual accounts at the National Bank. One filing can name more than one committee.
177 of the 60,406 companies in NACE division 47 have a parent company abroad. Main parent countries: Netherlands (54), France (51) and Germany (15). Together they employ 30,845 of the division's 222,433 FTE: 14%, against 14% for Belgium as a whole.
Subsidies in this sector
per register · legal entities with an enterprise number- Flemish subsidies €389.8m awarded
- Wallonia-Brussels Federation €31.7m paid
- Federal transfers 11.7m amount as published
- EU budget €76.1m attributed share
- EU research €8.6m EU contribution
Insights on Retail trade
Balance sheet and result. 17.0% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. The median net result of €11,203 is below Belgium's €16,468. Solvency of 35.0% is below Belgium's 46.1%.
Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.6% is above Belgium's 0.2%. In 12 months, 8.3 of 1,000 companies went bankrupt, against 6.2 in Belgium. That is more than in 80% of the 87 other NACE divisions. By size, the median bankruptcy probability is 0.6% at under 10 FTE, 0.4% at 10 to 49 FTE, 0.5% at 50 to 249 FTE and 0.4% at 250 FTE or more.
Inflow and structure. Wallonia holds 27.1% of the seats, against 22.7% in Belgium. Half of the companies are younger than 9.5 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium.
Staff and filing. 46.8% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.5% in Belgium. The median staff cost per FTE of €49,767 is below Belgium's €61,428. The 5 largest employers hold 33,896 of the 222,433 FTE: 15.2%.
Direction. Median solvency rose from 32.1% in financial year 2020 to 34.7% in financial year 2025. The median net result fell from €13,050 in financial year 2020 to €10,220 in financial year 2025. In 2025, Statbel counted 1,294 bankruptcies and 3,511 jobs lost, against 931 bankruptcies in 2020.
The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 14-11-2026 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 47 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 1,276,430 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 700,464 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. 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.