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Full-service restaurants

Current registrations 20,106division 56: 59,898
Starters, 12 months 1,4637.3 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 53526.6 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 26,7092,101 employers · latest accounts
Median age 8.8 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 89.9%18,066 of 20,106 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

Filed accounts

NACE 56111 · financial year 2025 · 11,364 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
28.6%
division 29.2% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€7,294
division €5,942 · Belgium €16,520
Median equity
€47,809
division €36,488 · Belgium €98,421
Loss-making
34.6%
division 35.0% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
24.7%
division 24.8% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
15.7%
division 16.6% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.04
division 1.07 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
50.7%
financial year 2024, 11,573 filings · division 52.7% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
8.2%
of 13,394 companies with annual accounts · division 9.5% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 24.0%29.8%27.9%26.9%28.5%28.6%
Median net result €3,866€17,552€5,162€5,967€9,273€7,294

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

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
1,358
6.75% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
1,594
79.3 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
05-11-2026 DUBOREST
BE 0684.455.754
05-11-2026 VIN
BE 0724.488.545
05-11-2026 Ruben
BE 0729.821.664
05-11-2026 NOOIT GEDACHT
BE 0744.684.044
05-11-2026 LobbySa
BE 0784.214.019
05-11-2026 Ribs and Bones
BE 1009.476.426
05-11-2026 LION
BE 1021.665.069
05-11-2026 Broodjes & Frituur Lounge
BE 1022.680.106

Every bankruptcy in division 56, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 16,622 of 20,106 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 10,710 · 64.4%
  • Wallonia 3,923 · 23.6%
  • Brussels 1,978 · 11.9%
  • Abroad 11 · 0.1%
fewer moremax 3,102

Largest employers

NACE 56111 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 LUNCH GARDENEvere 740 FTEfinancial year 2023
  2. 2 ODASBruges 518 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 Lunch Garden BelgiumZaventem 309 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 LES AUBERGES DE JEUNESSEBrussels 127 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 GROUPE LEON VANLANCKER 1893Brussels 115 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 5,514 companies
  • 302 Hotels and catering 5,397
  • 201 Independent retail 57
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 52
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 31
  • 119 Food trade 24
  • 124 Construction 15
  • 118 Food industry 12
  • 220 White-collar workers in the food industry 11
Show the 12 others
  • 314 Hairdressing and beauty care 8
  • 329.02 Socio-cultural sector 8
  • 333 Tourist attractions 5
  • 149.01 Electricians: installation and distribution 4
  • 329.01 Socio-cultural sector 4
  • 126 Furnishing and woodworking 3
  • 144 Agriculture 3
  • 202 White-collar workers in food retail 3
  • 323 Building management, estate agents and domestic staff 3
  • 121 Cleaning 2
  • 140 Transport and logistics 2
  • 140.03 Road transport and logistics for third parties 2

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

Division 56: Food and beverage service

Related activities

2 other activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Limited-service restaurants, excluding mobile food services56112 21,399 1,872 471 13,073
Mobile food service activities56120 1,066 522 1 22

Bankruptcies per year in division 56

Per year201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Bankruptcies1,8091,9082,0921,9521,9961,3381,0071,5811,9581,9141,9571,408
Jobs lost3,7284,5664,0724,3744,1042,9302,3463,0834,3074,1085,4153,422

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 56

3,222 employers
Median
€43,500
Belgium €61,400
Middle half
€35,200 to €51,000
half of the employers lie between
Place among sectors
75 of 78
sectors with a median staff cost per FTE, highest first
By size class
SizeMedianMiddle halfEmployers
fewer than 10 FTE €43,100 €34,500 to €51,100 1,734
10 to 49 FTE €43,800 €35,700 to €50,700 1,417
50 to 249 FTE €47,200 €38,100 to €52,600 59

Running bankruptcies in the sector

NACE division 56
Number
3,118
Half have run longer than
19 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
27%
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

15 of the 39,001 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 59,292 FTE: 5.2%, against 14% for Belgium as a whole.

Subsidies in this sector

per register · legal entities with an enterprise number
  • Flemish subsidies €377.2m awarded 4,498 recipients · 2022 to 2025 · largest: Erkenning en financiering/subsidiëring van woonzorgcentra
  • Federal transfers 1.0m amount as published 11 recipients · 2023 to 2025 · largest: Toelagen aan privé-organisaties in het kader van de diversiteit, de interculturaliteit en de gelijkheid van kansen
  • Wallonia-Brussels Federation €32.0m paid 201 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Subventions forfaitaires - Enseignement de plein exercice
  • EU budget €5.4m attributed share 18 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Social and Mobility
  • EU research €786,528 EU contribution 5 recipients · 2016 to 2026 · largest: Horizon Europe

Explore every recipient in this sector

Insights on Full-service restaurants

Balance sheet and result. 24.7% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. The median net result of €7,294 is below Belgium's €16,520. Solvency of 28.6% is below Belgium's 46.1%.

Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 1.6% is above Belgium's 0.2%. In 12 months, 26.6 of 1,000 companies went bankrupt, against 6.2 in Belgium. No NACE division counts more.

Inflow and structure. 17.3% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. In 12 months, 7.3 of 100 companies started, against 8.9 in Belgium. That is fewer than in 51% of the 87 NACE divisions. This activity holds 33.6% of the registrations of Food and beverage service.

Staff and filing. 50.7% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 1,809 of the 26,709 FTE: 6.8%.

Direction. Median solvency rose from 24.0% in financial year 2020 to 28.6% in financial year 2025. The median net result rose from €3,866 in financial year 2020 to €7,294 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 56111 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.