Netherlands sees company bankruptcies soar

The number of bankruptcies increased again in September, after a sharp decline in August. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), 35 more companies were declared bankrupt last month than in August. That is an increase of almost 11 percent. According to CBS, the trend in the number of bankruptcies has been rising for more than two years. In the first nine months of 2024, almost 40 percent more companies were declared bankrupt than in the same period a year earlier.

In September, 342 companies and institutions, including sole traders, were declared bankrupt. Of all sectors, retail once again recorded the most bankruptcies with 63. This is almost a quarter more than in August.

For instance, the number of shoe stores in the Netherlands has decreased significantly, according to figures from the Chamber of Commerce (KVK). In the past five years, the number of shoe stores decreased by almost a quarter. After the first half of this year, there were 1853 shoe stores left in the Netherlands, compared to 2403 in 2019.

"This process has been going on for a while and shoe stores are responding to it with their own web shops." There are "not many" bankruptcies, a spokesperson for the trade association INretail says.

Trade is one of the sectors with the most companies. In relative terms, most bankruptcies were filed in the manufacturing industry in September. The construction and hospitality sectors also recorded an increase in bankruptcies last month. Furthermore, the transport and storage sector recorded a decline.

The highest number of reported bankruptcies was in May 2013, when 911 companies went bankrupt. The number of bankruptcies in the Netherlands then fell until August 2017. The trend then remained fairly flat until 2020. After that, the number of insolvencies continued to fall, reaching a record low of 109 in August 2021. From May 2022, the number of bankruptcies was consistently higher than in the same month of the previous year, according to CBS.