Rotterdam, 23 July 2020 - In the fourth quarter of 2020 to the fourth quarter of 2021, there will be 1,760 bankruptcies in the construction sector in the Netherlands. This is three-and-a-half times as many as in the year 2019. The hospitality industry will be relatively spared: with 510 bankruptcies, 0.58 percent of the sector will go bankrupt. These figures come from a data analysis of over 3 million organizations conducted by business data specialist Altares Dun & Bradstreet. The sector that is relatively hardest hit is the transport sector. As many as 0.96 percent of transport companies will go bankrupt next year. This leads to 663 bankruptcies.
Next year 1,760 bankruptcies in construction sector, hospitality industry is spared with only 510 bankruptcies
The number of bankruptcies will triple. Whereas just before the outbreak of COVID-19, 3,656 Dutch companies went bankrupt in a year, that will increase to 11,069 bankruptcies in the period Q4 2020 to Q4 2021. Thus, with over 3 million active organizations in the country, 0.37 percent do not survive the crisis. That percentage is almost as high as in 2013, the year after the second economic dip caused by the credit crisis. The percentage then was 0.39 percent, made up of 9,202 bankruptcies out of 2,361,019 companies.
Netherlands many fewer bankruptcies than Belgium
There are large differences between bankruptcies in the Netherlands and Belgium. In the third quarter of 2020 to the third quarter of 2021, many more organizations go bankrupt in Belgium: an expected 16,275, which is 0.90 percent of the entire market. The Belgian hospitality industry is especially hard hit: next year 2,578 restaurants and cafes will close their doors, which is 3.65 percent of the sector. These figures are drastic, but Belgium has always had a fairly high number of bankruptcies. The high number of predicted bankruptcies is only one and a half times that of 2019.
David Verheecke, Managing Director Benelux and Group COO at Altares Dun & Bradstreet: "The Dutch hospitality sector stands out. For a long time their doors remained closed and they could not turn over any turnover, and yet relatively few bankruptcies are expected. We saw a similar development in previous crises. On the other hand, we are now also seeing many hospitality entrepreneurs voluntarily ending their businesses rather than waiting for bankruptcy. The ultimate economic effect of the corona crisis remains to be seen. If, for example, a second lockdown occurs, a double dip in the economy is expected. This will cause an even larger spike in the bankruptcies (Dutch) cause."
