Rise in stoppers and bankruptcies continues

The number of stoppers and bankruptcies in Q1 2024 is around 44,590 and 1,000, which are increases of 1.4% and 23% compared to the same period last year. There were 72,000 new establishments in Q1 this year, up 7.2% from 78,000 in the same period last year. A total of 2,542,873 businesses were registered in the KVK's Business Register at the end of Q1. An increase of 3.6% compared to Q1 2023. 

Net growth

The decline in the number of start-ups is now signalled by KVK for the third quarter in a row. The number of quitters has also been on an upward trend for three quarters in a row, although the number of quitters increased more sharply in the previous two quarters.

"Although the growth in the number of businesses is decreasing, there is still a net increase. This is a striking trend, much stronger than population growth in the Netherlands. So the Netherlands still seems to be becoming more entrepreneurial after all," says Erik Stam professor of strategy, organisation and entrepreneurship at Utrecht University.

The decline in the number of business start-ups per 1,000 establishments can be observed across all sectors, but most strongly in energy, water and environment (-26%), construction (-25%) and health (-22%). Retail, logistics and the catering industry have the highest number of both starting and closing establishments.  

Development of number of starters per 1,000 establishments per sector (Q1 2024 compared to Q1 2023)

Retail and young entrepreneurs

Retail is the only sector where the number of start-ups increased (+6%) compared to Q1 2023. The number of start-ups per 1,000 establishments was also high in this sector at 42.2, while there were 25.6 stoppers per 1,000 establishments. Overall, there were 11,347 start-ups and 6,875 stoppers in this sector in the last quarter. This movement within the retail sector is mainly taking place in online shops. 

"We saw a huge increase in the number of online shops during corona. Corona has been a driver of digitalisation on several fronts. While that growth slowed down quite a bit after corona, the trend went up again in the past year, with the second highest number of online shop start-ups ever. We see the number of shops in the street decreasing, but increasing on the digital highway," says Stam. 

The number of online shop start-ups increased by 13% in Q1 2024 compared to Q1 2023. These webshops are remarkably often set up by young entrepreneurs. Almost half (48%) of webshops are set up by people aged 25 or younger. By comparison, the average age of all entrepreneurs is 45, of start-ups 34.

"Many of these young people start a webshop with personal care items, clothes or trendy (non-alcoholic) drinks. They often start their business while they are also busy with their studies, or sometimes as part or assignment of it, and find that it is difficult to combine this really well with each other," says Gerdine Annaars, Entrepreneur Advisor KVK. "These entrepreneurs usually think out the concept perfectly, but we notice that they are not equally well prepared for everything. For example, we help them with questions about laws and regulations surrounding product safety, importing and exporting, taxes and consumer law.

Bankruptcies

Over the past six quarters (especially in 2023), the number of bankruptcies increased steadily, emerging similar to the years just before the corona period. The number of bankruptcies in Q1 2024 is 1,003. That is 23% higher than the same quarter last year, when there were 819. 

"It was remarkable that there were so few bankruptcies. We are now moving back towards a number of bankruptcies that fits a normal economic situation," Stam said.

Read the KVK Trend report Q1 2024 (only available in Dutch).