Business bankruptcies up a third compared to last year after 6% jump in November

Roughly a third more business bankruptcies have been declared in the Netherlands in the first 11 months of the year compared to the same period in 2023. Adjusted for court days, 19 more companies were declared bankrupt in November than the month before, an increase of 6 percent, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported. Through the end of November, 4,198 businesses and individuals declared bankruptcy in the Netherlands, the most for a given year since the entirety of 2019.

The trend in business bankruptcies has been rising for over two years. In November, 322 companies and institutions went bust. Adjusted for sector size, the most bankruptcies were most pronounced among industrial companies.

In absolute numbers, the most bankruptcies were declared in the trade sector at 66, which is actually down 15 percent compared to October. November was a bad month for the high streets, with three prolific businesses going bankrupt - Blokker, The Body Shop, and e-bike firm Stella. Despite these well-known retailers declaring bankruptcy in recent weeks, the retail segment, a sector in the trade industry, saw business bankruptcies fall from 36 in October to 26 in November.

The sector is on pace for roughly 367 this year, about 10 percent more than in 2023, and roughly level with the recent peak set in 2019. Some 904 retailers went bust in 2013, setting the mark for the most annual retail bankruptcies in the past 15 years.

So far this year, 3,402 companies and institutions, 442 individuals with a sole proprietorship, and 347 individuals without their own business have declared bankruptcy. That is the most in a given year since the figure set for January-December 2019.

If the current trend continues into December, the Netherlands is on pace for the most annual bankruptcies since 2017. That year, a total of 4,620 were reported, including personal bankruptcies.