Record number of Belgian business failures

4 May 2004

BRUSSELS – April saw a record number of Belgian businesses go under, according to new figures released on Tuesday.

The statistics, drawn up by business consultancy Graydon, showed that 691 were declared bankrupt last month.

The figure represents a 6 percent rise on the number of business failures for the same period in 2003.

April’s gloomy total brings to 2,839 the number of Belgian firms that have gone out of business since the beginning of 2004, the highest number of failures in the past seven years.

Aside form a few high-profile bankruptcies like Belgium’s well-known charter airline Sobelair, nearly all of this year’s business failures have concerned very small companies or one-person firms.

The service sector has been hit hardest by business failures this year with a 17.3 percent rise compared to the same period in 2003.

The catering trade has not fared much better and has registered a 16.5 percent increase while the wholesale trade has seen business failures go up by 14.3 percent.

Flemish and Walloon Brabant are the two Belgian regions that have suffered most heavily form business failures this year, according to Graydon.

Between them they have registered a total of 711 bankruptcies since the beginning of 2004.

Subject: Belgian news