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Retail sale of antiques

Current registrations 1,434division 47: 115,449
Starters, 12 months 1339.3 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 64.2 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 37745 employers · latest accounts
Median age 13.5 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 82.4%1,181 of 1,434 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

Filed accounts

NACE 47791 · financial year 2025 · 475 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
32.8%
division 35.1% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€3,503
division €11,256 · Belgium €16,497
Median equity
€75,525
division €98,380 · Belgium €98,338
Loss-making
40.7%
division 29.5% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
24.0%
division 17.0% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
6.9%
division 12.3% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.59
division 1.47 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
46.8%
financial year 2024, 491 filings · division 46.7% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
7.4%
of 525 companies with annual accounts · division 7.6% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 32.1%34.3%34.4%33.4%32.6%32.8%
Median net result €4,504€8,258€3,975€3,088€2,129€3,503

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

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
14
0.98% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
19
13.2 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
13-10-2026 GALERIE PIERRE MAHAUX
BE 0477.908.310
06-07-2026 De Schepper, Kevin
BE 0668.946.147 · sole trader · Niel
24-04-2026 BKW Editions
BE 0844.094.196
07-04-2026 TRESOR DU PASSE
BE 1010.518.779
26-03-2026 Pattyn, Anthony
BE 0679.534.884 · sole trader · Kortrijk
14-01-2026 PRIME ART
BE 0790.907.316
22-10-2025 Antiek Heuvelmans
BE 0473.880.137
03-09-2025 Early Birds Art Group
BE 0764.351.387

Every bankruptcy in division 47, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 647 of 1,434 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 327 · 50.5%
  • Brussels 191 · 29.5%
  • Wallonia 113 · 17.5%
  • Abroad 16 · 2.5%
fewer moremax 191

Largest employers

NACE 47791 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 ECOSOMechelen 176 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 AXEL VERVOORDT ART & ANTIQUESSchilde 39.6 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 ORGANI-VENTES-COMMISSAIRES PRISEURS ASSOCIESNamur 22.3 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 ESCALADiest 12.1 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 HOTEL DE VENTES VANDERKINDEREUccle 9.9 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 86 companies
  • 201 Independent retail 40
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 32
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 31
  • 126 Furnishing and woodworking 14
  • 124 Construction 3
  • 323 Building management, estate agents and domestic staff 2
  • 125.03 Timber trade 1
  • 145 Horticulture 1
Show the 1 others
  • 149.04 Metal trade 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 6,394 798 71 10,660
Retail sale of pharmaceutical products47730 5,196 149 8 11,476
Other retail sale of new goods47789 4,199 299 17 2,325
Retail sale of flowers, plants, seeds and fertilisers47761 3,348 187 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 2,167 293 16 1,723
Show all 22 activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Retail sale of cosmetics and toilet articles47750 2,045 359 13 1,950
Retail sale of watches and jewellery47770 2,004 187 10 1,247
Retail sale of prescription glasses, lenses and sunglasses47742 1,728 60 5 1,747
Retail sale of pets, pet food and pet supplies47762 1,327 129 8 1,464
Retail sale of souvenirs and religious articles47784 1,094 152 5 318
Retail sale of medical and orthopaedic goods, excluding prescription glasses and lenses47741 1,050 50 9 3,514
Retail sale of footwear47721 1,015 52 8 2,991
Retail sale of second-hand clothing47792 941 154 9 1,453
Retail sale of other second-hand goods, excluding clothing47793 923 175 6 836
Retail trade47715 664 86 1 249
Retail trade47714 506 34 3 882
Retail trade47713 487 47 6 440
Retail trade47712 450 53 6 270
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

11,341 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 €46,300 €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
2,275
Half have run longer than
20 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
29%
Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 108,621 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 9 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 60,421 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 222,396 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 antiques

Balance sheet and result. 24.0% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. The median net result of €3,503 is below Belgium's €16,497. Return on equity of 6.9% is below Belgium's 15.9%.

Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.7% is above Belgium's 0.2%. In 12 months, 4.2 of 1,000 companies went bankrupt, against 6.2 in Belgium. That is more than in 56% of the 88 NACE divisions.

Inflow and structure. Brussels holds 30.3% of the seats, against 12.5% in Belgium. Half of the companies are younger than 13.5 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. 54.9% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium.

Staff and filing. 46.8% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 260 of the 377 FTE: 68.8%.

Direction. The median net result fell from €4,504 in financial year 2020 to €3,503 in financial year 2025.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 09-11-2026 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 47791 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 1,276,461 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 699,442 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.