Food and beverage service activities
Activities
NACE division 56 · 9 activities| Activity | Registrations | Starters, 12 months | Bankruptcies, 12 months | FTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Limited-service restaurants, excluding mobile food services56112 | 21,390 | 1,884 | 470 | 13,131 |
| Full-service restaurants56111 | 20,104 | 1,486 | 532 | 26,645 |
| Cafés and bars56301 | 13,681 | 1,121 | 339 | 4,343 |
| Event catering56210 | 7,372 | 669 | 63 | 6,998 |
| Contract catering and other food service activities56220 | 1,322 | 112 | 20 | 7,647 |
| Mobile food service activities56120 | 1,071 | 524 | 1 | 22 |
| Food and beverage service activities56309 | 610 | 63 | 6 | 178 |
| Nightclubs56302 | 322 | 14 | 7 | 331 |
| Food and beverage service activities56400 | 29 | 19 | 0 | - |
Filed accounts
NACE division 56 · financial year 2025 · 24,941 filed annual accounts| Per financial year | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median solvency | - | - | 25.4% | 30.5% | 28.6% | 28.0% | 29.2% | 29.6% |
| Median net result | - | - | €2,918 | €11,246 | €3,658 | €4,612 | €6,814 | €5,799 |
| Filed late | 54.9% | 62.1% | 61.0% | 57.8% | 56.3% | 55.2% | 52.7% | - |
Hold your customer's or competitor's figures against them in the Sector benchmark
Staff cost per FTE in NACE division 56
3,234 employers| Size | Median | Middle half | Employers |
|---|---|---|---|
| fewer than 10 FTE | €43,000 | €34,500 to €51,000 | 1,742 |
| 10 to 49 FTE | €43,700 | €35,600 to €50,700 | 1,421 |
| 50 to 249 FTE | €47,200 | €38,100 to €52,600 | 59 |
Employers with the highest staff cost per FTE in this division All sectors by staff cost In the Analysis workbench
Bankruptcies
Bankruptcies per year in division 56
| Per year | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bankruptcies | 1,809 | 1,908 | 2,092 | 1,952 | 1,996 | 1,338 | 1,007 | 1,581 | 1,958 | 1,914 | 1,957 | 1,408 |
| Jobs lost | 3,728 | 4,566 | 4,072 | 4,374 | 4,104 | 2,930 | 2,346 | 3,083 | 4,307 | 4,108 | 5,415 | 3,422 |
2026 through September. Every bankruptcy, also of companies that have since left the register. Source: Statbel (Directorate-General Statistics), NACE classification of 2008.
Recent bankruptcies
| Date | Company |
|---|---|
| 12-11-2026 | L'ECAILLER DU PALAIS ROYAL BELGIUM
BE 0474.079.283 |
| 12-11-2026 | MVM Professional
BE 0630.973.122 |
| 12-11-2026 | De Fraeye, Anne-Marie
BE 0660.721.042 · sole trader · Tervuren |
| 12-11-2026 | EATALIAN FOODLOVERS
BE 0678.920.816 |
| 12-11-2026 | Joseph, Stefaan
BE 0744.702.355 · sole trader · Beernem |
| 12-11-2026 | Last Eagle
BE 0759.662.131 |
| 12-11-2026 | SAPOA
BE 0769.552.666 |
| 12-11-2026 | Afana, Raed
BE 0773.644.878 · sole trader · Liège |
Running bankruptcies in the sector
NACE division 56Measured nationally: Of 108,810 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 14 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.
Spread across the country
by region and province · 41,430 of 59,869 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat- Flanders
- Wallonia
- Brussels
- Abroad
This sector's balance sheets on the map, by municipality and down to the address
Largest employers
NACE division 56 · staff from the latest accounts- 1 Sodexo Belgium SABrussels 2,600 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 2 ZORG-SAAM ZUSTERS KINDSHEID JESUGhent 1,707 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 3 Centre hospitalier universitaire de Tivoli - Institut médical des Mutualités socialistesLa Louvière 1,588 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 4 Compass Group BelgiumMachelen (Brab.) 1,457 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 5 ISS CATERINGBrussels 746 FTEfinancial year 2025
Joint committees
from the latest accounts of 10,180 companies- 302 Hotels and catering 9,745
- 201 Independent retail 232
- 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 149
- 119 Food trade 99
- 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 75
- 118 Food industry 67
- 220 White-collar workers in the food industry 43
- 124 Construction 35
Show the 12 others
- 329.01 Socio-cultural sector 16
- 329.02 Socio-cultural sector 15
- 314 Hairdressing and beauty care 14
- 149.01 Electricians: installation and distribution 13
- 333 Tourist attractions 9
- 121 Cleaning 8
- 226 White-collar workers in international trade, transport and logistics 8
- 202 White-collar workers in food retail 7
- 112 Garages 6
- 126 Furnishing and woodworking 6
- 140 Transport and logistics 6
- 140.03 Road transport and logistics for third parties 6
Source: the annual accounts at the National Bank. One filing can name more than one committee.
15 of the 38,992 companies in NACE division 56 have a parent company abroad. Main parent countries: France (3), United Kingdom (3) and Netherlands (3). Together they employ 3,089 of the division's 59,312 FTE: 5.2%, against 14% for Belgium as a whole.
Subsidies in this sector
per register · legal entities with an enterprise number- Flemish subsidies €377.1m awarded
- Wallonia-Brussels Federation €32.0m paid
- Federal transfers 1.0m amount as published
- EU budget €5.4m attributed share
- EU research €786,528 EU contribution
Insights on Food and beverage service
Balance sheet and result. 24.8% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. The median net result of €5,920 is below Belgium's €16,468. Solvency of 29.2% is below Belgium's 46.1%.
Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 1.6% is above Belgium's 0.2%. In 12 months, 23.2 of 1,000 companies went bankrupt, against 6.2 in Belgium. No other NACE division counts more. By size, the median bankruptcy probability is 1.8% at under 10 FTE, 0.9% at 10 to 49 FTE and 0.6% at 50 to 249 FTE.
Inflow and structure. 30.8% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. Brussels holds 15.6% of the seats, against 12.5% in Belgium.
Staff and filing. 52.7% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.5% in Belgium. The median staff cost per FTE of €43,473 is below Belgium's €61,428. The 5 largest employers hold 8,098 of the 59,309 FTE: 13.7%.
Direction. Median solvency rose from 25.4% in financial year 2020 to 29.6% in financial year 2025. The median net result rose from €2,918 in financial year 2020 to €5,799 in financial year 2025. In 2025, Statbel counted 1,957 bankruptcies and 5,415 jobs lost, against 1,338 bankruptcies in 2020.
The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 14-11-2026 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 56 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 1,276,430 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 700,464 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. 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.