Retail trade

NACE 4769

Current registrations1,290

Starters, 12 months · division 4710,793

Employment (FTE) · division 47243,422

Median age · division 479.4 years

In NACE division 47, 9.2 companies per 100 started in the past twelve months, against 7.5 nationally; that is higher than that of 66% of the 87 NACE divisions. Comparison: as of 29-09-2026 05:30.

Key figures for NACE division 47

fiscal year 2025 · median over 33,379 filed annual accounts

Median solvency

35.5%

lower than 80% of 79 divisions

Median equity

€93,255

lower than 61% of 79 divisions

Median net result

€10,547

lower than 67% of 79 divisions

Annual accounts in sample

33,379

Foreign control in NACE division 47

61,077 registered companies

Companies with a foreign parent

0.3%

174 of 61,077; Belgium 0.3%

Staff at those companies

14%

30,788 of 220,722 FTE; Belgium 15%

Mostly from Netherlands (52), France (51) and Germany (15).Show on the map by municipality

Staff cost per FTE in NACE division 47

3,224 employers of at least 10 FTE

Median

€47,400

Belgium €65,100

Middle half

€38,900 to €62,200

half of the employers lie between

Place among sectors

69 of 73

by median staff cost per FTE

By size class
Size	Median	Middle half	Employers
10 to 49 FTE	€46,300	€38,400 to €60,900	2,833
50 to 249 FTE	€57,600	€44,500 to €71,800	316
250 FTE or more	€55,800	€47,600 to €67,200	75

Best-paying employers in this division All sectors by staff cost In the Analysis workbench

Bankruptcies

past five years

Bankruptcies (5y)

Historical share

1.16%

Nationally, 1.61% of current registrations have a published bankruptcy opening in the past five years. This sector's historical share is higher than that of 52% of the 88 NACE divisions. The median bankruptcy probability in NACE division 47 is 0.8%, against 0.5% nationally, over 57,477 scored companies. Comparison: as of 29-09-2026 05:30.

Bankruptcies still running

NACE division 47

Running bankruptcies

2,320

Half have run longer than

20 months

Belgium: 20 months

Longer than three years

28%

Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 64,419 bankruptcies of legal entities across Belgium, 46% were closed within five years for insufficient assets and 32% after liquidation, 4% were withdrawn; 18% were still open after five years. Half had ended after 26 months (a quarter after 15, three quarters after 49 months).

Counts companies with this main activity in the register on 29 September 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

Regional split

by region · 689 of 1,290 enterprises with a registered office on file

Flanders 374 · 54.3%

Brussels 214 · 31.1%

Wallonia 93 · 13.5%

Unknown 8 · 1.2%

Recent bankruptcies in this sector

Date	Company
21-09-2026	THE VAULT ART GALLERY BE 0805.012.601
08-09-2026	ABSOLUTE PROPERTY GALLERY BE 0795.548.963
03-09-2026	DANIELS MUSICAL SOUND BE 0428.369.123
24-08-2026	12 Senses BE 0833.073.117
19-08-2026	Sole trader BE 0500.934.625
16-07-2026	KP CONCEPT BE 1021.313.097
19-06-2026	Stream art Gallery BE 0748.915.224
19-12-2025	ZAKENKANTOOR LUC LESCRAUWAET BE 0475.896.945

Geographic distribution

by province · based on the establishment address

West Flanders WVL 85

East Flanders OVL 86

Antwerp ANT 128

Flemish Brabant VLB 35

Limburg LIM 40

Brussels BRU 214

Hainaut HAI 18

Walloon Brabant WBR 25

Namur NAM 11

Liège LIE 34

Luxembourg LUX 5

fewer moremax 214

Where does this sector's wealth sit? By municipality, down to the street

Public money in this sector

per register · legal entities with an enterprise number

Flemish subsidies €417.2m awarded 9,108 recipients · 2022 to 2025 · largest: Erkenning en subsidiëring als maatwerkafdeling
Federal transfers 49.7m amount as published 32 recipients · 2023 to 2025 · largest: Toelagen OCMW's recht op maatschappelijke integratie
Wallonia-Brussels Federation €37.6m paid 113 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Subventions aux organisations de jeunesse (décret du 20 juin 1980 et du 26 mars 2009)
EU budget €76.7m attributed share 25 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Information and communication technology
EU research €8.5m eu contribution 13 recipients · 2008 to 2026 · largest: Horizon 2020

Explore every recipient in this sector

How these figures are counted

Current enterprise registrations are counted through their registered main activities; establishment units are excluded. Counted in the KBO's NACE 2025 nomenclature, the one in which code 4769 exists.

Share of currently registered companies with a published bankruptcy opening in the past five years. Registered main activities in the selected classification can overlap. This retrospective share is not a future bankruptcy probability.

The comparison with the country and with the other NACE divisions comes from a nightly overview of every division, each counted in the nomenclature in which it exists. A standing such as "higher than 80%" counts the other divisions that have the figure. The bankruptcy probability is the median of our nightly score over the division's companies that have one; the count is stated.

The key figures cover the whole NACE division 47, not NACE 4769 on its own: there are too few filed annual accounts per five-digit code to compute them separately. The middle company of the sector, based on all filed annual accounts.