Retail trade
No bankruptcy in the past five years.
Filed accounts
NACE 47920 · financial year 2025 · 41 filed annual accounts| Per financial year | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Median solvency | 31.8% |
| Median net result | €12,308 |
Hold your customer's or competitor's figures against them in the Sector benchmark
Spread across the country
by region and province · 102 of 511 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat- Flanders
- Wallonia
- Brussels
- Abroad
The balance sheets of division 47 on the map, by municipality and down to the address
Largest employers
NACE 47920 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts- 1 VH AuctionsZele 15.2 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 2 JAKO TEAMSPORT nv/saLier 12.5 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 3 Bonhams Cornette de Saint CyrSint-Gillis (bij-Brussel) 7.1 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 4 BIOLABWaterloo 1.5 FTEfinancial year 2025
Joint committees
from the latest accounts of 10 companies- 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 5
- 201 Independent retail 3
- 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 2
- 207 White-collar workers in the chemical industry 1
- 215 White-collar workers in the clothing and garment industry 1
Source: the annual accounts at the National Bank. One filing can name more than one committee.
Division 47: Retail trade
Related activities
1 other activity| Activity | Registrations | Starters, 12 months | Bankruptcies, 12 months | FTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intermediation services for non-specialised retail47910 | 843 | 561 | 1 | 40 |
Bankruptcies per year in division 47
| Per year | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bankruptcies | 1,394 | 1,382 | 1,499 | 1,374 | 1,438 | 931 | 746 | 1,076 | 1,169 | 1,299 | 1,294 | 914 |
| Jobs lost | 2,893 | 3,468 | 2,913 | 2,713 | 2,892 | 4,088 | 2,112 | 2,125 | 4,156 | 3,933 | 3,511 | 2,092 |
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| Size | Median | Middle half | Employers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
Employers with the highest staff cost per FTE in this division All sectors by staff cost In the Analysis workbench
Running bankruptcies in the sector
NACE division 47Measured 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.
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
- Wallonia-Brussels Federation €31.7m paid
- Federal transfers 11.7m amount as published
- EU budget €76.1m attributed share
- EU research €8.6m EU contribution
Insights on Retail trade
Balance sheet and result. Return on equity of 48.6% is above Belgium's 15.9%. 22.0% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. Solvency of 31.8% is below Belgium's 46.1%.
Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.9% is above Belgium's 0.2%.
Inflow and structure. In 12 months, 59.7 of 100 companies started, against 8.9 in Belgium. No NACE division counts more. 80.0% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. Half of the companies are younger than 0.9 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium.
Staff and filing. The 4 largest employers hold 36 of the 36 FTE: 100.0%.
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 47920 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.