he number of company bankruptcies so far this year has been significantly higher than in the same period last year.
From January to September 2023, 8 percent more bankruptcy proceedings were opened compared to the previous year.
In Switzerland there were a total of 3,845 company bankruptcies in the first three quarters of this year, as the business information service Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) announced on Wednesday. In September alone, D&B counted 522 insolvency proceedings (+10%). The risk of bankruptcy depends largely on the industry.
The number of company bankruptcies rose the most over the course of the year in the large Espace Mittelland region, where bankruptcies rose by 17 percent. In Ticino the increase was 13 percent, followed by northwestern Switzerland (+11%) and Zurich (+10%).
The risk of insolvency depends heavily on the industry. In the wood and furniture industry, for example, the probability of bankruptcy is three times higher than the national average. For craft businesses and the hospitality industry, the factor is 2.3, and in the construction industry there were twice as many bankruptcies as average.
The number of new businesses has also increased this year. At 3 percent to 38,325 new companies, the increase was significantly lower than the growth in bankruptcy.