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Retail sale of pharmaceutical products

Current registrations 5,198division 47: 115,375
Starters, 12 months 1482.8 per 100 · Belgium 8.8
Bankruptcies, 12 months 81.5 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 11,4692,195 employers · latest accounts
Median age 19.6 yearsBelgium 8.1 years

Filed accounts

NACE 47730 · financial year 2025 · 3,836 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
42.3%
division 35.1% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€48,582
division €11,305 · Belgium €16,539
Median equity
€268,270
division €98,766 · Belgium €98,485
Loss-making
13.6%
division 29.5% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
4.8%
division 16.9% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
17.4%
division 12.3% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.70
division 1.48 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
36.0%
financial year 2024, 3,847 filings · division 46.7% · Belgium 38.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 36.0%37.7%40.3%41.6%42.6%42.3%
Median net result €40,373€48,788€54,614€47,169€50,079€48,582

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

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
21
0.40% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
28
5.4 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
24-08-2026 JUNIOR INVEST
BE 0897.049.367
10-07-2026 PHARMACIE BERGMAN
BE 0465.419.559
06-07-2026 ACACIA
BE 0420.628.919
19-06-2026 Geukens, Nik
BE 0708.810.672 · sole trader · Waremme
06-03-2026 PHARMACIE SAINT CHARLES
BE 0475.712.744
13-01-2026 AVISTER-MEDICAL
BE 0669.862.895
30-12-2025 PHARMACIE ANANGA-TALOM
BE 0452.425.222
21-11-2025 BE 'O NATUREL
BE 0888.246.618

Every bankruptcy in division 47, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 4,443 of 5,198 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 2,634 · 59.3%
  • Wallonia 1,311 · 29.5%
  • Brussels 493 · 11.1%
  • Abroad 5 · 0.1%
fewer moremax 613

Largest employers

NACE 47730 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 MultipharmaAnderlecht 1,523 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 L'Economie PopulaireCiney 631 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 BENUWavre 370 FTEfinancial year 2026
  4. 4 Popelin ApothekenAnderlecht 362 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 PHARMACIES POPULAIRES DE VERVIERS ET ARRONDISSEMENTThimister-Clermont 340 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 2,195 companies
  • 313 Pharmacies and pricing offices 2,162
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 13
  • 207 White-collar workers in the chemical industry 7
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 5
  • 201 Independent retail 5
  • 321 Wholesale distributors of medicines 5
  • 314 Hairdressing and beauty care 4
  • 116 Chemical industry 3
Show the 12 others
  • 144 Agriculture 3
  • 330 Health institutions and services 3
  • 118 Food industry 2
  • 101 Mining 1
  • 102 Quarries 1
  • 124 Construction 1
  • 149.04 Metal trade 1
  • 220 White-collar workers in the food industry 1
  • 223 Sport 1
  • 310 Banks 1
  • 323 Building management, estate agents and domestic staff 1
  • 332 French- and German-speaking welfare and health sector 1

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

Division 47: Retail trade

Related activities

22 other activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Retail sale of clothing and accessories for women, men, children and babies (general range)47716 6,394 795 71 10,664
Other retail sale of new goods47789 4,194 292 17 2,322
Retail sale of flowers, plants, seeds and fertilisers47761 3,344 183 15 2,345
Retail sale of solid, liquid and gaseous fuels, excluding motor fuels47781 3,078 21 19 932
Retail sale of women's outerwear47711 2,171 293 16 1,724
Retail sale of cosmetics and toilet articles47750 2,042 355 13 1,950
Show all 22 activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Retail sale of watches and jewellery47770 2,003 185 10 1,243
Retail sale of prescription glasses, lenses and sunglasses47742 1,728 59 5 1,747
Retail sale of antiques47791 1,432 132 6 377
Retail sale of pets, pet food and pet supplies47762 1,325 127 8 1,463
Retail sale of souvenirs and religious articles47784 1,094 152 5 318
Retail sale of medical and orthopaedic goods, excluding prescription glasses and lenses47741 1,049 50 9 3,514
Retail sale of footwear47721 1,014 51 8 2,991
Retail sale of second-hand clothing47792 940 151 9 1,453
Retail sale of other second-hand goods, excluding clothing47793 920 172 6 836
Retail trade47715 664 85 1 249
Retail trade47714 506 34 3 882
Retail trade47713 487 45 6 440
Retail trade47712 448 51 6 279
Retail trade47722 403 36 3 431
Retail trade47783 338 30 3 706
Retail trade47782 76 9 0 -

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

11,339 employers
Median
€49,800
Belgium €61,400
Middle half
€39,500 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 8,074
10 to 49 FTE €46,300 €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
2,275
Half have run longer than
20 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
29%
Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 108,606 bankruptcies of legal entities across Belgium, 49% were closed within five years for insufficient assets and 29% 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 5 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 60,419 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 222,352 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 €8.5m EU contribution 13 recipients · 2008 to 2026 · largest: Horizon 2020

Explore every recipient in this sector

Insights on Retail sale of pharmaceutical products

Balance sheet and result. The median net result of €48,582 is above Belgium's €16,539. 4.8% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. 13.6% of the annual accounts close with a loss, against 26.7% in Belgium.

Bankruptcies. In 12 months, 1.5 of 1,000 companies went bankrupt, against 6.2 in Belgium. That is fewer than in 76% of the 88 NACE divisions.

Inflow and structure. Half of the companies are younger than 19.6 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. In 12 months, 2.8 of 100 companies started, against 8.8 in Belgium. That is fewer than in 90% of the 87 NACE divisions. 14.5% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium.

Staff and filing. The 5 largest employers hold 3,226 of the 11,469 FTE: 28.1%.

Direction. Median solvency rose from 36.0% in financial year 2020 to 42.3% in financial year 2025. The median net result rose from €40,373 in financial year 2020 to €48,582 in financial year 2025.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 05-11-2026 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 47730 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 1,275,887 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 699,448 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.