Wholesale

A stable wholesale industry

The wholesale industry consists of wide variety of companies selling goods and products to retailers and other businesses. As such, the wholesale trade can be compared to the retail industry, which also spans over a wide range of goods and services. The industry's primary characteristic is the commercial and - in this case - that trade is wholesale, ie. in larger amounts compared to retail which trades in piecemeal.

The wholesale trade in Denmark consists of approx. 15,000 companies, a number that was fairly stable throughout the period from 2000 to 2008. Compared to the average, the number of companies in the industry has varied between ÷ 2.5% in 2002 to +1.2% in 2003, which is considered a very small variation.¹

Although the total number of companies is stable, it covers large variations in the industry. In all of the industries with the exception of wholesale trade in textiles and household equipment, the number of companies has declined. While there in 2008 was almost 9% more wholesalers in textiles and household equipment compared to 2000, the number of wholesale merchants of grain and feed has fallen by almost 30%.

Another decline can be observed in the sub-industry of the wholesale merchants with IT equipment, where the number of companies has shrunk by over 10%.²

Turnover growth from 2004
While the number of companies has been stable at around 15,000, the industry turnover has experienced a different dramatic development. The wholesale trade turnover in 2000 amounted to DKK 545.4 bn. compared to DKK 726.4 bn. in 2008, equivalent to a growth in turnover of approx. 1/3.

The growth came mainly from 2004 to 2006 where turnover increased by 23.6% or more than DKK 138.7 bn.³

Stable exports
Exports have increased relatively to the industry turnover and in 2008 reached DKK 165.8 bn. representing 22.8% of total turnover. As such, the wholesale industry is neither among the most export-intensive industries, nor is among the least export-intensive industries in Denmark.

Just as in the case of number of companies, exports have as a percentage of the total turnover remained fairly stable over the period 2000 to 2008. Exports averaged as 22.3% of total industry turnover and for the period shows a maximum spread of +/÷ 1.4 percentage points from this average.

The dramatic turnover growth 2004-2006 is also observed in export figures and since 2006 exports as a percentage of total turnover has also fallen to a level similar to the average.⁴

Employment at the level of 2000
The number of full-time employees in the wholesale industry has experienced both ups and down in the period 200-2008. While the number of full-time employees in the industry at its lowest in 2003 was 6.5% below 2000-levels, it was in 2008 1.3% above 2000-level - a difference of just 11,000 people.⁵

¹ Statistikbanken, GF2.
² Statistikbanken, GF2.
³ Statistikbanken, GF2 (current prices).
⁴ Statistikbanken, GF2.
⁵ Statistikbanken, GF2.

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