Last year, 140,000 companies voluntarily ceased trading, a rise of 20% on 2019, before coronavirus hit, according to new figures from national statistics agency CBS.

2020 was the third year in a row that there was an increase in the number of companies closing down, and most (90%) had just one employee, the CBS said.

The figure may have been inflated because a record number of new companies were launched last year, and the bankruptcy rate was extremely low. This meant the total number of registered companies in the Netherlands rose significantly, the CBS said.

Some 40% of the companies to close down provided specialist business services, and these were largely one-person operated firms, the figures show.

Most of the companies with more than one employee to shut up shop were in the hospitality industry and over 900 restaurants, cafes and snack bars closed their doors.