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Retail sale of beverages, general range

Current registrations 1,505division 47: 115,448
Starters, 12 months 16310.8 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 96.0 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 2,992130 employers · latest accounts
Median age 11.1 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 88.2%1,327 of 1,505 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

Filed accounts

NACE 47252 · financial year 2025 · 666 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
34.8%
division 35.1% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€7,197
division €11,274 · Belgium €16,520
Median equity
€103,029
division €98,568 · Belgium €98,421
Loss-making
33.7%
division 29.5% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
19.2%
division 16.9% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
7.8%
division 12.3% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.47
division 1.47 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
42.4%
financial year 2024, 661 filings · division 46.7% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
7.1%
of 736 companies with annual accounts · division 7.5% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 34.0%34.2%34.2%33.9%33.9%34.8%
Median net result €4,180€11,261€14,119€14,733€10,016€7,197

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

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
30
1.99% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
36
23.9 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
01-10-2026 BIERHALLE DEMEYER
BE 0450.384.757
18-09-2026 LHS GROUP
BE 1009.794.546
10-09-2026 X-GIN
BE 0650.677.681
16-07-2026 L-A FACTORY
BE 1012.666.340
15-07-2026 BEER PLANET
BE 1010.082.279
18-02-2026 Inkooporganisatie
BE 0892.209.463
19-01-2026 LIMO SAM
BE 0759.643.523
12-01-2026 ALEYNA SERVICES
BE 0760.984.301

Every bankruptcy in division 47, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 989 of 1,505 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 570 · 57.6%
  • Wallonia 296 · 29.9%
  • Brussels 117 · 11.8%
  • Abroad 6 · 0.6%
fewer moremax 178

Largest employers

NACE 47252 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 COCA-COLA EUROPACIFIC PARTNERS BELGIUMAnderlecht 1,966 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 BREAKPOINT FOOD SERVICESWaregem 205 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 VAN EETVELDELokeren 44.8 FTEfinancial year 2026
  4. 4 DRINK - O - MATHarelbeke 36.4 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 StivalTubize 35.5 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 255 companies
  • 201 Independent retail 160
  • 119 Food trade 139
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 46
  • 302 Hotels and catering 18
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 8
  • 220 White-collar workers in the food industry 6
  • 118 Food industry 5
  • 314 Hairdressing and beauty care 2
Show the 6 others
  • 112 Garages 1
  • 149.01 Electricians: installation and distribution 1
  • 202.01 Medium-sized food businesses 1
  • 221 White-collar workers in the paper industry 1
  • 311 Large retail businesses 1
  • 323 Building management, estate agents and domestic staff 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 wines and spirits47251 2,328 292 9 140
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 beverages, general range

Balance sheet and result. The median net result of €7,197 is below Belgium's €16,520. 19.2% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. Return on equity of 7.8% is below Belgium's 15.9%.

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

Inflow and structure. Half of the companies are younger than 11.1 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. Wallonia holds 30.1% of the seats, against 22.7% in Belgium. In 12 months, 10.8 of 100 companies started, against 8.9 in Belgium. That is more than in 83% of the 87 NACE divisions.

Staff and filing. 42.4% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 2,288 of the 2,992 FTE: 76.5%.

Direction. The median net result rose from €4,180 in financial year 2020 to €7,197 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 47252 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.