What do we see?
The figure below shows the number of organisations active in Belgium in the professional B2C repair sector between 2015 and 2020, as well as their turnover and related employment. The turnover of the entire sector has increased from € 368 million in 2015 to € 449 million in 2019 which, with inflation included, represents an increase of 15%. This helps explain why the number of FTEs increased between 2015 and 2019 in the repair sector. In addition, we also see that there are many more companies in the repair sector than there are FTEs. An exception is computer and communication equipment repair where there are more employees than the number of organisations. In general, we can say that repairs of other goods are often carried out by small enterprises whose employees do so in a secondary occupation and/or rely on volunteers. The figures for the year 2020 are significantly lower: here we see the effect of the COVID crisis. More recent figures are not currently available.
A survey of professional repairers shows that 86% of professional repairers in Belgium are located in Flanders. Just over half of both professional and voluntary repairers in Belgium do bicycle repair. Repair of EEE and textiles come second and third, respectively. Repair of furniture and other personal items are small niche activities.
What’s the aim?
Repairing means repairing a utensil, appliance or product so that its owner can use it for longer. Repairing is ranked high as a strategy in the circular hierarchy and we would like to see this activity increase: by repairing, we ensure that products can perform their function for longer and the purchase of new appliances as well as the disposal of products can be postponed. There are no specific targets on repair, but measures to increase repair, and communication about it, are in the pipeline at Belgian and EU level.
What does this indicator measure?
The sector data for this indicator come from Eurostat as available in November 2023. Sewing workshops and bicycle repair shops are not included in the repair sector according to NACE categories and are therefore not shown. Complementary data were found through the organisation Repair&Share, which together with Repair Together created a map of repairers for Belgium.
