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Retail sale of motor vehicle parts and accessories

Current registrations 1,255division 47: 115,448
Starters, 12 months 1038.2 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 86.4 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 1,968156 employers · latest accounts
Median age 14.1 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 88.8%1,115 of 1,255 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

Filed accounts

NACE 47820 · financial year 2025 · 625 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
39.8%
division 35.1% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€16,009
division €11,274 · Belgium €16,520
Median equity
€141,312
division €98,568 · Belgium €98,421
Loss-making
22.3%
division 29.5% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
12.8%
division 16.9% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
13.3%
division 12.3% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.56
division 1.47 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
49.8%
financial year 2024, 638 filings · division 46.7% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
8.7%
of 704 companies with annual accounts · division 7.5% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 33.0%34.7%33.9%36.7%39.8%39.8%
Median net result €10,643€14,613€14,489€13,734€15,266€16,009

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

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
25
1.99% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
30
23.9 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
17-09-2026 CENTR'AUTO-BRICO BEL
BE 0446.093.694
28-05-2026 AG EUROPE
BE 0842.189.335
17-04-2026 BELGIUM MOTOR CYCLE GROUP
BE 1014.541.311
25-02-2026 PROCLOSE
BE 0474.456.001
23-01-2026 AUTO BELLENS
BE 0865.580.884
24-11-2025 Aktrion BeNeLux
BE 0763.313.091
24-11-2025 Aktrion Automotive Services
BE 1009.425.055
24-11-2025 Aktrion Logistics & Compound Services
BE 1009.425.253

Every bankruptcy in division 47, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 836 of 1,255 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 382 · 45.7%
  • Wallonia 313 · 37.4%
  • Brussels 123 · 14.7%
  • Abroad 18 · 2.2%
fewer moremax 123

Largest employers

NACE 47820 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 AUTO 5Anderlecht 592 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 QTeam SudAns 156 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 BPW BENELUXHerstal 47.4 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 IDE AUTOMOTIVEPittem 44.6 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 MECELCAROttignies-Louvain-la-Neuve 44.1 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 251 companies
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 131
  • 112 Garages 122
  • 149.04 Metal trade 55
  • 201 Independent retail 52
  • 149 Sectors related to metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 10
  • 149.01 Electricians: installation and distribution 4
  • 149.02 Coachwork 4
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 3
Show the 10 others
  • 142.01 Recovery of raw materials 3
  • 127 Fuel trade 2
  • 140 Transport and logistics 2
  • 209 White-collar workers in metal manufacturing 2
  • 314 Hairdressing and beauty care 2
  • 111 Metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 1
  • 121 Cleaning 1
  • 126 Furnishing and woodworking 1
  • 140.03 Road transport and logistics for third parties 1
  • 207 White-collar workers in the chemical industry 1

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

Division 47: Retail trade

Related activities

4 other activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Retail sale of cars and light vans (up to 3.5 tonnes)47811 10,466 852 110 22,429
Retail sale of motorcycles and motorcycle parts and accessories47830 1,101 45 4 824
Retail trade47812 336 24 2 1,311
Retail trade47813 25 9 0 5

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

11,335 employers
Median
€49,800
Belgium €61,400
Middle half
€39,600 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 8,071
10 to 49 FTE €46,400 €38,700 to €60,900 2,866
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
2,272
Half have run longer than
20 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
29%
Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 108,562 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 6 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 60,397 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 222,349 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 €8.6m EU contribution 14 recipients · 2008 to 2026 · largest: Horizon 2020

Explore every recipient in this sector

Insights on Retail sale of motor vehicle parts and accessories

Balance sheet and result. Return on equity of 13.3% is below Belgium's 15.9%. 22.3% of the annual accounts close with a loss, against 26.7% in Belgium. Solvency of 39.8% is below Belgium's 46.1%.

Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.5% is above Belgium's 0.2%.

Inflow and structure. Half of the companies are younger than 14.1 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. Wallonia holds 38.3% of the seats, against 22.7% in Belgium. 33.4% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium.

Staff and filing. 49.8% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 884 of the 1,968 FTE: 44.9%.

Direction. Median solvency rose from 33.0% in financial year 2020 to 39.8% in financial year 2025. The median net result rose from €10,643 in financial year 2020 to €16,009 in financial year 2025.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 06-11-2026 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 47820 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 1,276,581 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 698,987 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.