Skip to content

Retail sale of other sporting goods

Current registrations 1,300division 47: 115,449
Starters, 12 months 1017.8 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 75.4 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 854118 employers · latest accounts
Median age 11.6 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 89.6%1,165 of 1,300 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

Filed accounts

NACE 47639 · financial year 2025 · 632 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
31.0%
division 35.1% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€9,130
division €11,256 · Belgium €16,500
Median equity
€90,862
division €98,389 · Belgium €98,350
Loss-making
33.8%
division 29.5% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
19.1%
division 17.0% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
8.2%
division 12.3% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.54
division 1.47 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
43.3%
financial year 2024, 646 filings · division 46.7% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
7.7%
of 701 companies with annual accounts · division 7.6% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 29.4%31.4%29.1%28.4%29.5%31.0%
Median net result €10,492€11,862€11,245€8,239€8,070€9,130

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

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
22
1.69% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
27
20.8 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
26-08-2026 WAKEHOUSE
BE 0833.850.305
29-06-2026 ALHANT SPORTS
BE 0433.578.617
08-06-2026 SAPHIR SALES AND CONSULTING
BE 0733.558.144
05-06-2026 CYKOM BV
BE 0719.573.417
03-06-2026 FITNESS TRADING
BE 0466.257.125
19-05-2026 CirQels
BE 0831.000.978
10-03-2026 NIEUWPOORT MARINE SCHIPCHANDLER
BE 0738.565.027
26-09-2025 SSVesdre
BE 0717.660.339

Every bankruptcy in division 47, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 859 of 1,300 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 510 · 59.4%
  • Wallonia 263 · 30.6%
  • Brussels 72 · 8.4%
  • Abroad 14 · 1.6%
fewer moremax 168

Largest employers

NACE 47639 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 KEMPESGhent 68.3 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 AMERICA TODAY BELGIUMAntwerp 51.7 FTEfinancial year 2024
  3. 3 CHARLESPORTSCharleroi 34.5 FTEfinancial year 2026
  4. 4 EPPLEJECK BRUSSELZaventem 28.4 FTEfinancial year 2024
  5. 5 SPORT LINERoeselare 25.4 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 231 companies
  • 201 Independent retail 175
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 50
  • 149.04 Metal trade 19
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 19
  • 109 Clothing and garment industry 6
  • 112 Garages 5
  • 302 Hotels and catering 5
  • 311 Large retail businesses 5
Show the 12 others
  • 124 Construction 3
  • 149 Sectors related to metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 3
  • 149.01 Electricians: installation and distribution 3
  • 119 Food trade 2
  • 126 Furnishing and woodworking 2
  • 101 Mining 1
  • 102.05 Quarries 1
  • 111 Metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 1
  • 121 Cleaning 1
  • 125.03 Timber trade 1
  • 130 Printing, graphic arts and newspapers 1
  • 144 Agriculture 1

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

Division 47: Retail trade

Related activities

7 other activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Retail sale of newspapers and periodicals47621 2,280 75 25 1,856
Retail sale of bicycles47632 1,448 87 10 1,372
Retail sale of other cultural and recreation goods47690 1,276 145 9 202
Retail sale of games and toys47640 1,025 254 5 1,069
Retail trade47610 607 72 4 433
Retail trade47631 127 3 1 49
Show all 7 activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Retail trade47622 33 24 0 6

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

11,343 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 8,078
10 to 49 FTE €46,400 €38,700 to €60,900 2,867
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
2,274
Half have run longer than
20 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
29%
Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 108,642 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 8 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 60,416 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 222,407 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 9,032 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 other sporting goods

Balance sheet and result. 19.1% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. Return on equity of 8.2% is below Belgium's 15.9%. The median net result of €9,130 is below Belgium's €16,500.

Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.6% is above Belgium's 0.2%. In 12 months, 5.4 of 1,000 companies went bankrupt, against 6.2 in Belgium. That is more than in 66% of the 88 NACE divisions.

Inflow and structure. Half of the companies are younger than 11.6 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. Wallonia holds 31.1% of the seats, against 22.7% in Belgium. 33.9% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium.

Staff and filing. 43.3% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 208 of the 854 FTE: 24.4%.

Direction. Median solvency rose from 29.4% in financial year 2020 to 31.0% in financial year 2025. The median net result fell from €10,492 in financial year 2020 to €9,130 in financial year 2025.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 08-11-2026 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 47639 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 1,276,474 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 699,509 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.