Rotterdam, Feb. 15, 2023 - In February 2023, 243 companies went bankrupt in the Netherlands. This is 76 more than in the same period last year, an increase of some 46 percent. So says business data expert Altares Dun & Bradstreet after analyzing its latest figures.
February 2023: runner up for number of bankruptcies
This puts February in second place for the highest number of bankruptcies in a single month over the past 12 months. November 2022 leads the way with 245 bankruptcies that month. Still, pre-corona levels are far from being reached; in fact, 317 businesses closed their doors in February 2020.
Rising trend in bankruptcies
Since the beginning of the corona crisis, the number of bankruptcies has been lower than before. This has been in part a result of government support to ensure that organizations stay afloat. A side effect of these support packages is that financially unhealthy organizations also do not go bankrupt. We are now seeing an upward trend in bankruptcies, toward pre-corona numbers.
Trade and retail lose out
Altares Dun & Bradstreet looks at monthly bankruptcies in the Netherlands and sees in which provinces and sectors they are declared. Most bankruptcies occurred in trade and retail: 59 in total. This is a trend we saw more frequently in the months before. This sector is the leader over all of 2022 with a total of 398 bankruptcies. The Construction sector also stands out in the negative for its high number of bankruptcies, at 33. Followed by the Hospitality sector (26).
Joris Peeters, Chief Data Scientist at Altares Dun & Bradstreet: "We see in our data that the number of bankruptcies is picking up. We are not at pre-corona levels yet, but we are noticing across the board that the removal of financial support, inflation and rising costs are causing more companies to fail. This is particularly visible in the trade and retail sector; this may be due to consumers being more careful with their money due to the recession."
The full bankruptcy report of Altares Dun & Bradstreet for February 2023 is available for download here.
