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Retail sale of other cultural and recreation goods

Current registrations 1,277division 47: 115,440
Starters, 12 months 14511.4 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 97.0 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 20246 employers · latest accounts
Median age 7.8 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 85.4%1,091 of 1,277 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

Filed accounts

NACE 47690 · financial year 2025 · 445 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
31.1%
division 35.1% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€3,814
division €11,251 · Belgium €16,492
Median equity
€52,259
division €98,352 · Belgium €98,323
Loss-making
42.9%
division 29.5% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
25.8%
division 17.0% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
10.4%
division 12.3% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.56
division 1.47 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
51.5%
financial year 2024, 441 filings · division 46.7% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
7.3%
of 490 companies with annual accounts · division 7.6% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 31.7%32.4%34.0%31.7%31.1%31.1%
Median net result €8,702€12,039€6,712€3,158€4,420€3,814

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

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
12
0.94% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
14
11.0 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

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
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
10-12-2025 Vinyl Junkies
BE 0734.719.471

Every bankruptcy in division 47, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 674 of 1,277 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 366 · 54.3%
  • Brussels 206 · 30.6%
  • Wallonia 89 · 13.2%
  • Abroad 13 · 1.9%
fewer moremax 206

Largest employers

NACE 47690 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 KEY MUSICAntwerp 48.4 FTEfinancial year 2021
  2. 2 XAVIER HUFKENSIxelles 16.0 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 ALMINE RECH GALLERYIxelles 13.6 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 INTERNATIONAL ART TRADING COMPANYKnokke-Heist 13.0 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 SHARING ARTAntwerp 7.2 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 110 companies
  • 201 Independent retail 55
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 35
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 33
  • 126 Furnishing and woodworking 8
  • 302 Hotels and catering 4
  • 227 Audiovisual sector 3
  • 304 Performing arts 3
  • 111 Metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 1
Show the 4 others
  • 136 Paper and cardboard processing 1
  • 149.01 Electricians: installation and distribution 1
  • 222 White-collar workers in paper and cardboard processing 1
  • 307 Insurance brokers and agencies 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 24 1,856
Retail sale of bicycles47632 1,448 87 10 1,372
Retail sale of other sporting goods47639 1,300 101 7 854
Retail sale of games and toys47640 1,025 254 5 1,069
Retail trade47610 607 72 4 434
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

11,342 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 8,079
10 to 49 FTE €46,300 €38,700 to €60,900 2,865
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
2,277
Half have run longer than
20 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
29%
Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 108,651 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 10 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 60,413 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 222,368 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 9,031 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 cultural and recreation goods

Balance sheet and result. 25.8% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. The median net result of €3,814 is below Belgium's €16,492. 42.9% of the annual accounts close with a loss, against 26.7% in Belgium.

Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.6% is above Belgium's 0.2%. In 12 months, 7.0 of 1,000 companies went bankrupt, against 6.2 in Belgium. That is more than in 73% of the 88 NACE divisions.

Inflow and structure. Brussels holds 31.2% of the seats, against 12.5% in Belgium. In 12 months, 11.4 of 100 companies started, against 8.9 in Belgium. That is more than in 86% of the 87 NACE divisions. 47.2% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium.

Staff and filing. 51.5% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 98 of the 202 FTE: 48.6%.

Direction. The median net result fell from €8,702 in financial year 2020 to €3,814 in financial year 2025.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 10-11-2026 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 47690 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 1,276,421 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 699,557 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.