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Retail sale of chocolate and confectionery

Current registrations 877division 47: 115,440
Starters, 12 months 8910.1 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 1213.7 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 36945 employers · latest accounts
Median age 6.9 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 89.2%782 of 877 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

Filed accounts

NACE 47242 · financial year 2025 · 346 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
31.7%
division 35.1% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€10,455
division €11,251 · Belgium €16,492
Median equity
€55,220
division €98,352 · Belgium €98,323
Loss-making
27.1%
division 29.5% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
16.8%
division 17.0% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
18.9%
division 12.3% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.26
division 1.47 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
44.0%
financial year 2024, 343 filings · division 46.7% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
5.8%
of 380 companies with annual accounts · division 7.6% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 27.2%29.9%28.3%27.2%29.7%31.7%
Median net result €6,780€11,570€9,132€9,588€12,405€10,455

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

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
22
2.51% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
28
31.9 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
20-10-2026 YDE GROUP
BE 0759.698.852
13-10-2026 THIBER
BE 0440.135.223
05-10-2026 ESPANA DISTRIBUTION
BE 1009.550.066
29-07-2026 BioNaomi
BE 0542.484.376
26-06-2026 CAREMENT CHOCOLAT
BE 1021.098.313
26-05-2026 M&C Stories
BE 0801.682.333
27-03-2026 Steurs, Tamara
BE 0656.729.491 · sole trader · Sint-Katelijne-Waver
09-02-2026 Kasmi Sweets
BE 1009.515.721

Every bankruptcy in division 47, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 486 of 877 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 280 · 57.6%
  • Wallonia 128 · 26.3%
  • Brussels 77 · 15.8%
  • Abroad 1 · 0.2%
fewer moremax 77

Largest employers

NACE 47242 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 BRCC ChocolatesBruges 34.7 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 LA MAISON DES DESSERTSNamur 24.9 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 DISTRICHOC BELGIUMBrussels 22.5 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 GALLER BOUTIQUESHerstal 18.4 FTEfinancial year 2024
  5. 5 BELGIQUE GOURMANDEBrussels 17.0 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 124 companies
  • 201 Independent retail 110
  • 119 Food trade 31
  • 302 Hotels and catering 11
  • 118 Food industry 7
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 3
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 2
  • 121 Cleaning 1
  • 136 Paper and cardboard processing 1
Show the 3 others
  • 140 Transport and logistics 1
  • 207 White-collar workers in the chemical industry 1
  • 222 White-collar workers in paper and cardboard processing 1

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

Division 47: Retail trade

Related activities

10 other activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Retail sale of fruit and vegetables47210 3,670 122 32 1,626
Retail sale of meat and meat products, excluding game and poultry47221 3,009 141 28 6,931
Other retail sale of food47279 2,446 329 24 1,416
Retail sale of bread and pastry (bakery outlets)47241 2,353 158 34 2,782
Retail sale of wines and spirits47251 2,331 295 9 141
Retail sale of beverages, general range47252 1,505 164 8 2,992
Show all 10 activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Retail trade47230 455 29 11 345
Retail trade47260 411 19 8 342
Retail trade47271 389 31 1 218
Retail trade47222 269 26 5 279

Bankruptcies per year in division 47

Per year201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Bankruptcies1,3941,3821,4991,3741,4389317461,0761,1691,2991,294914
Jobs lost2,8933,4682,9132,7132,8924,0882,1122,1254,1563,9333,5112,092

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 47

11,342 employers
Median
€49,800
Belgium €61,400
Middle half
€39,500 to €63,700
half of the employers lie between
Place among sectors
73 of 78
sectors with a median staff cost per FTE, highest first
By size class
SizeMedianMiddle halfEmployers
fewer than 10 FTE €50,500 €39,600 to €64,200 8,079
10 to 49 FTE €46,300 €38,700 to €60,900 2,865
50 to 249 FTE €57,600 €45,000 to €72,100 320
250 FTE or more €58,400 €47,500 to €70,900 78

Running bankruptcies in the sector

NACE division 47
Number
2,277
Half have run longer than
20 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
29%
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

177 of the 60,413 companies in NACE division 47 have a parent company abroad. Main parent countries: Netherlands (54), France (51) and Germany (15). Together they employ 30,842 of the division's 222,368 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 9,031 recipients · 2022 to 2025 · largest: Erkenning en subsidiëring als maatwerkafdeling
  • Wallonia-Brussels Federation €31.7m paid 108 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Subventions aux organisations de jeunesse (décret du 20 juin 1980 et du 26 mars 2009)
  • Federal transfers 11.7m amount as published 29 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 €76.1m attributed share 24 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Information and communication technology
  • EU research €8.6m EU contribution 14 recipients · 2008 to 2026 · largest: Horizon 2020

Explore every recipient in this sector

Insights on Retail sale of chocolate and confectionery

Balance sheet and result. The median net result of €10,455 is below Belgium's €16,492. 16.8% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. Solvency of 31.7% is below Belgium's 46.1%.

Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.8% is above Belgium's 0.2%. In 12 months, 13.7 of 1,000 companies went bankrupt, against 6.2 in Belgium. That is more than in 93% of the 88 NACE divisions.

Inflow and structure. Brussels holds 15.9% of the seats, against 12.5% in Belgium. Half of the companies are younger than 6.9 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. In 12 months, 10.1 of 100 companies started, against 8.9 in Belgium. That is more than in 77% of the 87 NACE divisions.

Staff and filing. 44.0% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 118 of the 369 FTE: 31.8%.

Direction. Median solvency rose from 27.2% in financial year 2020 to 31.7% in financial year 2025. The median net result rose from €6,780 in financial year 2020 to €10,455 in financial year 2025.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 10-11-2026 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 47242 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 1,276,421 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 699,557 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.