Archive:Wholesale trade statistics - NACE Rev. 2
- Data from April 2012. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
This article presents an overview of statistics for the wholesale trade sector in the European Union (EU), as covered by NACE Rev. 2 Division 46. In the supply chain, wholesalers are located between producers and users, providing know-how and knowledge in markets for which they have expertise. Wholesalers can provide a range of services from basic storage and break of bulk, sorting, grading and logistics to pre- and post-production operations (for instance, labelling, packaging, bottling and installation).
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(% share of sectoral total) - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_dt_r2)
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Main statistical findings
Structural profile
By most measures the wholesale trade sector (Division 46) was one of the largest sectors within the EU-27’s non-financial business economy (Sections B to J and L to N and Division 95), particularly when measured in terms of output. Wholesale trade turnover was EUR 4 780 billion [1] while value added was EUR 549 881 million, equivalent to 21.7 % and 9.9 % respectively of the non-financial business economy totals; this very high share of turnover reflects the nature of wholesaling, buying and reselling goods often in very large quantities. The 10.8 million strong workforce in the EU-27’s wholesale trade sector accounted for 8.1 % of the non-financial business economy total, while the 1.7 million wholesale trade enterprises contributed a broadly similar share (8.3 %) of the non-financial business economy enterprise population. As such, the wholesale trade sector can be characterised as having a large number of enterprises, of an average size in employment terms, with a slightly above average value added share and a particularly high level of turnover. Within distributive trades (Section G), the wholesale trade sector contributed 58.1 % of turnover, 49.6 % of value added, 32.4 % of employment and 28.5 % of all distributive trades enterprises.
The apparent labour productivity of the EU-27's wholesale trade sector in 2009 was EUR 51 thousand per person employed, above the non-financial business economy average of EUR 41.6 thousand per person employed and more than 50 % higher than the distributive trades average of EUR 33 thousand per person employed. Average personnel costs per employee within the EU-27’s wholesale trade sector were EUR 34.7 thousand, which was also higher than the non-financial business economy average (EUR 30.0 thousand) and the distributive trades average (EUR 25.0 thousand). The wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio combines the two previous indicators and shows the extent to which value added per person employed covers average personnel costs per employee. Due to the particularly high productivity and only slightly elevated average personnel costs the EU-27's wholesale trade sector in 2009 had a higher wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio (146.5 %) than the non-financial business economy average (138.8 %) or the distributive trades average (133.2 %).
In contrast, the very high turnover for the wholesale trade sector weighed down on the gross operating rate (which is the relation between the gross operating surplus and turnover), such that this averaged just 4.9 % across the EU-27 in 2009, approximately half the non-financial business economy average (9.7 %) and slightly below the distributive trades average (5.1 %). Wholesale trade had the sixth lowest level of operating profitability (using this measure) among the NACE divisions within the EU-27’s non-financial business economy, one place above motor trades (Division 45).
Sectoral analysis
Among the activities that compose the wholesale trade sector, own-account wholesale trade (Groups 46.2 to 46.9) accounted for 93.3 % of the EU-27's wholesale trade value added in 2009, while wholesale on a fee or contract basis (Group 46.1) accounted for the remainder; in terms of turnover the share for own-account wholesale trade was 95.4 %.
The largest own-account wholesale trade subsector in the EU-27, in value added terms, was the wholesale trade of household goods (Group 46.4) which contributed 28.1 % of the sectoral total in 2009; this sector had the second largest workforce with a 23.0 % share of wholesale trade employment. The subsector for other specialised wholesale trade (Group 46.7) had the second highest value added share and a fractionally higher employment share than for household goods wholesaling – see Figure 1. Only two other subsectors contributed more than one tenth of wholesale trade value added or employment, namely food, beverages and tobacco wholesaling (Group 46.3) and other machinery, equipment and supplies wholesaling (Group 46.6).
The high apparent labour productivity (value added per person employed ) figure for the wholesale trade sector was pulled upwards by information and communication (ICT) equipment wholesaling (Group 46.5), household goods wholesaling and other machinery, equipment and supplies wholesaling. Although the remaining five subsectors recorded apparent labour productivity below the wholesale trade average they all reached levels that were above the average for distributive trades and for most subsectors apparent labour productivity was also above the non-financial business economy average – the exceptions were wholesale on a fee or contract basis and non-specialised wholesale trade (Group 46.9).
In general, average personnel costs were quite different from one wholesale trade subsector to another. The EU-27’s ICT equipment wholesaling subsector, which had the highest apparent labour productivity of all wholesale trade subsectors, also had the highest average personnel costs, EUR 51.3 thousand per employee in 2009. The next highest level for this indicator was EUR 10 thousand lower, at EUR 41.1 thousand per employee for other machinery, equipment and supplies wholesaling. At the other end of the ranking, there were three subsectors that registered average personnel costs that were below the non-financial business economy average of EUR 30.0 thousand per employee, namely agricultural raw materials and live animals wholesaling (Group 46.2), food, beverages and tobacco wholesaling and non-specialised wholesale trade; average personnel costs for the last of these was also below the average for distributive trades.
In terms of the wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio, one wholesale trade subsector stood out, namely, wholesale on a fee or contract basis where the wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio within the EU-27 was 106.2 % in 2009; this was the only wholesale trade subsector with a ratio below the 133.2 % average for distributive trades. For the seven own-account wholesale trade subsectors, wage-adjusted labour productivity ranged from 136.6 % for other machinery, equipment and supplies wholesaling (which was just below the non-financial business economy average) to 170.4 % for non-specialised wholesale trade. For the gross operating rate, the position of the wholesale on a fee or contract basis subsector was reversed as it recorded the highest rate (8.5 %) among the EU-27’s wholesale trade subsectors in 2009, although this remained below the non-financial business economy average. Among the own-account wholesale trade subsectors, the gross operating rate ranged from 7.1 % for household goods wholesaling to 3.1 % for other specialised wholesale trade.
Country analysis
Germany contributed almost one quarter (24.1 %) of the EU-27’s value added in the wholesale trade sector in 2009 and was the largest Member State in value added terms for each of the seven own-account wholesale trade subsectors – with at least one fifth of the EU-27’s value added in each case. France had the largest subsector for wholesale on a fee or contract basis, accounting for 18.1 % of the EU-27 total.
Belgium and the Netherlands were the two most specialised Member States for wholesale trade, generating 13.9 % and 13.1 % respectively of their non-financial business economy value added in this sector in 2009. The least specialised Member States were Finland and the Czech Republic, where the wholesale trade sector contributed 7.7 % and 7.5 % respectively of national non-financial business economy value added. Among the non-member countries shown in Tables 4a and 4b, Switzerland and Norway showed specialisations outside the range recorded for the EU Member States: the share of wholesale trade in non-financial business economy value added was 14.6 % in Switzerland while it was just 6.2 % in Norway.
Wholesale on a fee or contract basis was particularly important in Slovenia where it contributed 2.8 % of non-financial business economy value added in 2009, and this subsector was also relatively important in Slovakia and Italy where it contributed more than 1.0 %. A number of other national specialisations stand out: Poland and Slovakia for non-specialised wholesale trade; the Netherlands, Ireland and Luxembourg for ICT equipment wholesaling; the Netherlands, Hungary, Bulgaria and Lithuania for agricultural raw materials and live animals wholesaling.
Among the Member States, wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios for wholesale trade in 2009 ranged from 129.0 % in Spain to 199.9 % in Poland with Bulgaria (222.4 %) and Romania (236.2 %) above this range and Italy (111.6 %) below it. The gross operating rate of the wholesale trade sector ranged from 3.0 % in France to 6.1 % in both Poland and Belgium, with Germany recording a rate (6.8 %) above this range, while Estonia (2.4 %) and Lithuania (2.2 %) were below it. In all of the Member States, the gross operating rate for wholesale trade was below the non-financial business economy average in 2009. However, when compared with the distributive trades average, several Member States recorded higher gross operating rates for wholesale trade, most notably Slovenia, Hungary and Ireland.
Data sources and availability
The analysis presented in this article is based on the main dataset for structural business statistics (SBS) which are disseminated annually. The series provides information for each Member State as well as a number of non-member countries at a detailed level according to the activity classification NACE. Data are available for a wide range of variables.
Context
This article presents an overview of statistics for the wholesale trade sector in the EU, as covered by NACE Rev. 2 Division 46. This division includes wholesale trade for own-account or on a fee or contract basis (commission trade) related to domestic wholesale trade as well as international wholesale trade (import/export). Wholesale is the resale (sale without transformation) of new and used goods to retailers, industrial, commercial, institutional or professional users, or other wholesalers; alternatively, it may involve acting as an agent or broker trading (buying or selling) merchandise with such clients. The principal types of businesses included are merchant wholesalers, in other words, wholesalers who take title to the goods they sell, such as wholesale merchants or jobbers, industrial distributors, exporters, importers, and cooperative buying associations; also included are sales branches and sales offices (but not retail stores) that are maintained by producers apart from their production operations for the purpose of marketing their products and that do not merely take orders to be filled by direct shipments from the production operations. Also included are merchandise and commodity brokers, commission merchants and agents and assemblers, buyers and cooperative associations engaged in the marketing of farm products.
Wholesalers frequently physically assemble, sort and grade goods in large lots, break bulk, repack and redistribute in smaller lots (for example, pharmaceuticals), store, refrigerate, deliver and install goods, engage in sales promotion or label design for their customers.
The activity is structured by first separating wholesalers on a fee or contract basis, and then distinguishing wholesalers based on their specialisation in terms of the different types of products that are for wholesale, with a final activity for wholesalers that sell a range of products and are therefore considered as unspecialised.
This NACE division is composed of eight groups:
- wholesale on a fee or contract basis (Group 46.1);
- wholesale of agricultural raw materials and live animals (Group 46.2);
- wholesale of food, beverages and tobacco (Group 46.3);
- wholesale of household goods (Group 46.4);
- wholesale of ICT equipment (Group 46.5);
- wholesale of other machinery, equipment and supplies (Group 46.6);
- other specialised wholesale (Group 46.7);
- non-specialised wholesale trade (Group 46.9).
The information presented in this article does not cover the wholesale of motor vehicles, motorcycles and their accessories (included as part of motor trades, Division 45), the renting and leasing of goods (Division 77), or the packing of solid goods and bottling of liquid or gaseous goods, including blending and filtering for third parties (which forms part of office administrative, office support and other business support activities, Division 82).
Further Eurostat information
Publications
Main tables
Database
- SBS – trade (sbs_dt)
- Annual detailed enterprise statistics – trade (sbs_na_dt)
- Annual detailed enterprise statistics for trade (NACE Rev.2 G) (sbs_na_dt_r2)
- Preliminary results on trade, main indicators (NACE Rev.2) (sbs_dt_r2preli)
- SMEs - Annual enterprise statistics broken down by size classes – trade (sbs_sc_dt)
- Distributive trades broken down by employment size classes (NACE Rev.2 G) (sbs_sc_dt_r2)
- Distributive trades broken down by size class of turnover (NACE Rev.2 G) (sbs_sctrn_dt_r2)
- Breakdown of turnover by product - trade (dt_cpa)
- Breakdown of turnover by product type for wholesale trade (NACE Rev.2 G46) (dt_cpa_n46_r2)
- Annual detailed enterprise statistics – trade (sbs_na_dt)
- SBS - regional data - all activities (sbs_r)
- SBS data by NUTS 2 regions and NACE Rev.2, from 2008 onwards (sbs_r_nuts06_r2)
Dedicated section
Source data for tables, figures and maps (MS Excel)
Other information
- Decision 1578/2007/EC of 11 December 2007 on the Community Statistical Programme 2008 to 2012
- Regulation 295/2008 of 11 March 2008 concerning structural business statistics
External links
See also
- Structural business statistics introduced
- Other analyses of the business economy by NACE Rev. 2 sector
- Distributive trades
Notes
- ↑ A billion is 1 000 million.