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Retail sale of wines and spirits

Current registrations 2,328division 47: 115,448
Starters, 12 months 29212.6 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 93.9 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 14038 employers · latest accounts
Median age 4.7 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 44.5%1,035 of 2,324 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

Filed accounts

NACE 47251 · financial year 2025 · 424 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
26.2%
division 35.1% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€1,319
division €11,274 · Belgium €16,520
Median equity
€39,412
division €98,568 · Belgium €98,421
Loss-making
42.7%
division 29.5% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
24.8%
division 16.9% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
6.9%
division 12.3% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.34
division 1.47 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
43.7%
financial year 2024, 426 filings · division 46.7% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
6.2%
of 466 companies with annual accounts · division 7.5% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 25.4%28.2%26.4%26.2%24.9%26.2%
Median net result €6,445€11,600€4,590€3,267€2,955€1,319

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

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
17
0.73% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
18
7.7 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
21-10-2026 Le Caviste Bio
BE 0777.299.107
24-07-2026 Sabeen, Muskaan
BE 1022.263.697 · sole trader · Sint-Niklaas
29-06-2026 La Cave de la Mère Germaine
BE 0773.798.494
13-04-2026 I.D.S. EUROPE
BE 0839.356.935
03-04-2026 AURBOR AND CORP
BE 0789.642.455
13-02-2026 PP Drinks
BE 0692.577.426
26-01-2026 BRUGES CENTRAL HOSTEL
BE 0501.537.411
12-11-2025 La Rosticceria Del Ritrovo
BE 0773.759.003

Every bankruptcy in division 47, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 1,692 of 2,328 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 379 · 22.4%
  • Wallonia 245 · 14.5%
  • Brussels 60 · 3.5%
  • Abroad 1,008 · 59.6%
fewer moremax 113

Largest employers

NACE 47251 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 VRANKEN POMMERY BENELUXBrussels 12.6 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 UNIVERS DRINKLiège 11.5 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 HALLET SALa Bruyère 11.2 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 Kosher4u GroupAntwerp 8.9 FTEfinancial year 2024
  5. 5 Les ElyséesSint-Martens-Latem 8.8 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 104 companies
  • 201 Independent retail 63
  • 119 Food trade 40
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 25
  • 302 Hotels and catering 11
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 2
  • 145 Horticulture 2
  • 111 Metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 1
  • 140 Transport and logistics 1
Show the 1 others
  • 209 White-collar workers in metal manufacturing 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 3,671 122 32 1,621
Retail sale of meat and meat products, excluding game and poultry47221 3,009 141 28 6,931
Other retail sale of food47279 2,443 325 24 1,420
Retail sale of bread and pastry (bakery outlets)47241 2,352 158 34 2,781
Retail sale of beverages, general range47252 1,505 163 9 2,992
Retail sale of chocolate and confectionery47242 879 89 12 361
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

11,335 employers
Median
€49,800
Belgium €61,400
Middle half
€39,600 to €63,800
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 €39,700 to €64,200 8,071
10 to 49 FTE €46,400 €38,700 to €60,900 2,866
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
2,272
Half have run longer than
20 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
29%
Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 108,562 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 6 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 60,397 companies in NACE division 47 have a parent company abroad. Main parent countries: Netherlands (54), France (51) and Germany (15). Together they employ 30,846 of the division's 222,349 FTE: 14%, against 14% for Belgium as a whole.

Subsidies in this sector

per register · legal entities with an enterprise number
  • Flemish subsidies €389.9m awarded 9,037 recipients · 2022 to 2025 · largest: Erkenning en subsidiëring als maatwerkafdeling
  • Federal transfers 11.7m amount as published 30 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)
  • 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)
  • 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 wines and spirits

Balance sheet and result. 24.8% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. The median net result of €1,319 is below Belgium's €16,520. 42.7% of the annual accounts close with a loss, against 26.7% in Belgium.

Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.8% is above Belgium's 0.2%. In 12 months, 3.9 of 1,000 companies went bankrupt, against 6.2 in Belgium. That is fewer than in 52% of the 88 NACE divisions.

Inflow and structure. Wallonia holds 35.8% of the seats, against 22.7% in Belgium. Half of the companies are younger than 4.7 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. In 12 months, 12.6 of 100 companies started, against 8.9 in Belgium. That is more than in 91% of the 87 NACE divisions.

Staff and filing. 43.7% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 53 of the 140 FTE: 37.7%.

Direction. The median net result fell from €6,445 in financial year 2020 to €1,319 in financial year 2025.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 06-11-2026 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 47251 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 1,276,581 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 698,987 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.