CRIF AG has looked at how many businesses were established and how many companies went out of business in the 1st half of the year. During this period, a total of 26,386 new businesses were set up in Switzerland. This represents an increase of 20.2% compared with last year. 14,721 companies were deleted from the Commercial Register in the same period. This is 51 fewer deletions than took place last year.
The highest number of new entries occurred in the Cantons of Zurich (4,635), Vaud (2,473) and Bern (2,470). In percentage terms, the Canton of Schaffhausen reported the highest growth.
A look at the individual sectors reveals that start-ups were most frequent in the retail trade (2,335), followed by the construction industry (1,897) and the management consultancy sector (1892). It is also interesting that more new companies were started up in the food and beverage sector this year compared with last year, despite the pandemic (+212).
On the other hand, the highest number of companies deleted from the Commercial Register was in the retail trade (1,489), followed by the construction industry (1,238) and the wholesale sector (1,129). Compared with the same period in the previous year, however, the number of deletions in these sectors has fallen, other than in the retail trade and the management consultancy sector.
Business portfolio
Over the 1st half of this year, there was a 1.7% net growth in the portfolio of companies in Switzerland. The strongest net growth was recorded in the Canton of Thurgau, at 2.4%, followed by the Canton of Solothurn (+2.2%) and the Cantons of Schwyz, Zug and Bern, at 2.1% each. The Canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden recorded a negative growth (-0.5%).
About the survey process
In this survey, we took account of all those businesses that were entered into the Commercial Register for the first time during the period from 1st January 2021 to 30th June 2021, together with those businesses that were deleted from the Commercial Register during the same period. A business may, for example, be deleted automatically, at the cessation of bankruptcy proceedings, at the end of the liquidity deadline, in the event of merger or when a company is closed in the absence of any succession arrangements.
The full study can be requested from presse.ch@crif.com.
