Retail trade

NACE 47115

Current registrations118

Starters, 12 months · division 4710,792

Employment (FTE) · division 47243,144

Median age · division 479.4 years

In NACE division 47, 9.2 companies per 100 started in the past twelve months, against 7.5 nationally; that is higher than that of 66% of the 87 NACE divisions. Comparison: as of 28-09-2026 05:30.

Key figures for NACE division 47

fiscal year 2025 · median over 33,360 filed annual accounts

Median solvency

35.5%

lower than 80% of 79 divisions

Median equity

€93,426

lower than 61% of 79 divisions

Median net result

€10,565

lower than 67% of 79 divisions

Annual accounts in sample

33,360

Foreign control in NACE division 47

61,077 registered companies

Companies with a foreign parent

0.3%

174 of 61,077; Belgium 0.3%

Staff at those companies

14%

30,788 of 220,722 FTE; Belgium 15%

Mostly from Netherlands (52), France (51) and Germany (15).Show on the map by municipality

Bankruptcies

past five years

Bankruptcies (5y)

Historical share

5.08%

Nationally, 1.41% of current registrations have a published bankruptcy opening in the past five years. This sector's historical share is higher than that of 99% of the 88 NACE divisions. The median bankruptcy probability in NACE division 47 is 0.8%, against 0.5% nationally, over 57,456 scored companies. Comparison: as of 28-09-2026 05:30.

Bankruptcies still running

NACE division 47

Running bankruptcies

2,320

Half have run longer than

20 months

Belgium: 20 months

Longer than three years

28%

Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 64,419 bankruptcies of legal entities across Belgium, 46% were closed within five years for insufficient assets and 32% after liquidation, 4% were withdrawn; 18% were still open after five years. Half had ended after 26 months (a quarter after 15, three quarters after 49 months).

Counts companies with this main activity in the register on 29 September 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

Regional split

by region · 115 of 118 enterprises with a registered office on file

Flanders 62 · 53.9%

Wallonia 36 · 31.3%

Brussels 17 · 14.8%

Recent bankruptcies in this sector

Date	Company
11-05-2026	LE FOURNIE BE 0896.245.158
19-12-2025	Unic Nieuwkerken BE 0784.386.837
13-10-2025	EPI-CERI BE 0825.215.028
10-06-2025	Moussa Express BE 1000.627.650
04-12-2023	ACIMA FOOD BE 0537.251.623
24-10-2022	AKR FOOD BE 0667.703.062

Geographic distribution

by province · based on the establishment address

West Flanders WVL 12

East Flanders OVL 12

Antwerp ANT 11

Flemish Brabant VLB 17

Limburg LIM 10

Brussels BRU 17

Hainaut HAI 12

Walloon Brabant WBR 5

Namur NAM 2

Liège LIE 15

Luxembourg LUX 2

fewer moremax 17

Where does this sector's wealth sit? By municipality, down to the street

How these figures are counted

Current enterprise registrations are counted through their registered main activities; establishment units are excluded. Counted in the KBO's NACE 2008 nomenclature, the one in which code 47115 exists.

Share of currently registered companies with a published bankruptcy opening in the past five years. Registered main activities in the selected classification can overlap. This retrospective share is not a future bankruptcy probability.

The comparison with the country and with the other NACE divisions comes from a nightly overview of every division, each counted in the nomenclature in which it exists. A standing such as "higher than 80%" counts the other divisions that have the figure. The bankruptcy probability is the median of our nightly score over the division's companies that have one; the count is stated.

The key figures cover the whole NACE division 47, not NACE 47115 on its own: there are too few filed annual accounts per five-digit code to compute them separately. The middle company of the sector, based on all filed annual accounts.