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Retail sale of hardware, building materials, paint and glass (general range)

Current registrations 1,680division 47: 115,448
Starters, 12 months 633.8 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 116.5 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 8,283476 employers · latest accounts
Median age 25.6 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 91.8%1,542 of 1,680 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

Filed accounts

NACE 47521 · financial year 2025 · 1,219 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
45.9%
division 35.1% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€22,422
division €11,274 · Belgium €16,520
Median equity
€390,724
division €98,568 · Belgium €98,421
Loss-making
25.3%
division 29.5% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
9.4%
division 16.9% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
7.7%
division 12.3% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.87
division 1.47 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
40.5%
financial year 2024, 1,259 filings · division 46.7% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
5.7%
of 1,330 companies with annual accounts · division 7.5% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 42.6%43.1%43.4%45.0%45.7%45.9%
Median net result €51,407€50,247€36,267€29,906€21,331€22,422

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

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
30
1.79% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
40
23.8 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
10-07-2026 BELGIAN AUDIO-VISUAL-SERVICES
BE 0423.679.964
07-05-2026 LEBEGGE-DROSSART EN ZONEN
BE 0414.014.509
11-03-2026 EIGHT INVESTMENT COMPANY
BE 0695.529.194
06-03-2026 Sbai, Fouad
BE 0752.439.490 · sole trader · Grâce-Hollogne
26-01-2026 Plastiek Van Wauwe
BE 0415.527.412
14-01-2026 Golf Entertainment
BE 0424.138.537
09-01-2026 GETENA
BE 0440.887.170
09-01-2026 VS MARBRE
BE 0861.155.409

Every bankruptcy in division 47, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 1,469 of 1,680 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 776 · 52.8%
  • Wallonia 521 · 35.5%
  • Brussels 161 · 11.0%
  • Abroad 11 · 0.7%
fewer moremax 235

Largest employers

NACE 47521 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 BRICO BELGIUMDilbeek 1,479 FTEfinancial year 2026
  2. 2 PLAN-ITDilbeek 535 FTEfinancial year 2026
  3. 3 BRICO PLAN-ITDilbeek 464 FTEfinancial year 2026
  4. 4 Hubo BelgiëWommelgem 228 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 BG RETAILAntwerp 127 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 661 companies
  • 201 Independent retail 395
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 156
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 145
  • 124 Construction 124
  • 149.04 Metal trade 89
  • 149 Sectors related to metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 19
  • 207 White-collar workers in the chemical industry 14
  • 116 Chemical industry 10
Show the 12 others
  • 149.01 Electricians: installation and distribution 10
  • 126 Furnishing and woodworking 9
  • 119 Food trade 8
  • 125.03 Timber trade 7
  • 311 Large retail businesses 5
  • 109 Clothing and garment industry 3
  • 111 Metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 3
  • 140 Transport and logistics 3
  • 302 Hotels and catering 3
  • 106.02 Concrete industry 2
  • 125.02 Wood industry 2
  • 140.03 Road transport and logistics for third parties 2

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

Division 47: Retail trade

Related activities

18 other activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Retail sale of household furniture47551 2,562 120 40 7,692
Retail sale of electrical household appliances47540 1,489 75 7 4,706
Retail sale of household textiles and bedding47512 1,259 43 4 2,037
Retail sale of other household articles47559 1,036 126 5 200
Retail sale of lighting equipment47552 752 24 1 2,261
Retail trade47530 528 42 1 372
Show all 18 activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Retail trade47553 425 51 2 260
Retail trade47529 365 22 5 233
Retail trade47525 300 19 0 333
Retail trade47554 272 39 1 318
Retail trade47519 266 23 1 88
Retail trade47511 259 28 3 79
Retail trade47522 231 14 2 187
Retail trade47513 225 23 0 4
Retail trade47527 212 19 5 304
Retail trade47523 170 7 2 251
Retail trade47526 161 3 1 164
Retail trade47524 74 1 3 105

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 hardware, building materials, paint and glass (general range)

Balance sheet and result. Return on equity of 7.7% is below Belgium's 15.9%. The median net result of €22,422 is above Belgium's €16,520. 9.4% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium.

Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.4% is above Belgium's 0.2%.

Inflow and structure. Half of the companies are younger than 25.6 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. 12.6% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. In 12 months, 3.8 of 100 companies started, against 8.9 in Belgium. That is fewer than in 83% of the 87 NACE divisions.

Staff and filing. The 5 largest employers hold 2,833 of the 8,283 FTE: 34.2%.

Direction. Median solvency rose from 42.6% in financial year 2020 to 45.9% in financial year 2025. The median net result fell from €51,407 in financial year 2020 to €22,422 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 47521 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.