Turnover of the 5,000 largest companies in Belgium is approaching the 1,000 billion euro mark

Total turnover is strongly influenced by a decrease of almost 30 billion euros at pharmaceutical company Pfizer in Puurs. It still had a turnover of 38.8 billion euros, which puts it in second place in the ranking of the largest companies. At the top is now Toyota Motor Europe, based in Brussels, with a turnover of 41.5 billion euros. Three more companies have more than 20 billion euros in turnover: ExxonMobil, Janssen Pharmaceutica and TotalEnergies.

Analyst Pascal Flisch of Trends Business Information points out that a third of the 5,000 largest companies saw turnover decline. And in total, that decrease was almost as large as the increase in turnover at the other companies. In addition, almost half had to accept a lower gross operating profit (EBITDA), although the total EBITDA increased by 1.5 percent to 77.3 billion euros.

According to the analyst, profitability is under pressure, especially at the largest companies, partly because they find it more difficult to pass on increased costs due to higher production costs and international competition. “The real profitability of companies with more than a thousand employees is seriously declining. At a certain point they will ask themselves whether it is still worth investing in Belgium and whether it is cheaper elsewhere,” says Flisch.

What is even more remarkable is that more than a quarter of the staff left at a third of companies last year. “That’s a high rotation,” says Flisch. He speaks of a structural problem that could jeopardize continuity. “One of the causes lies in the fact that baby boomers are retiring en masse. They are often partially replaced by a new generation of employees. Training costs time and money, while young people change jobs more quickly,” says the analyst.