More than 250.000 craft businesses created in 2023 in France, down 1% year-on-year

After having identified 252.550 creations of craft businesses in 2022, the Higher Institute of Trades (ISM) and the insurer Maaf count 250.660 new craft companies in 2023, in the latest edition of their “Craft Barometer”.

The launch of craft activities represented a small quarter (24%) of business creations in France in 2023, a stable proportion over one year.

“Sectoral developments are contrasting,” comment the ISM and the Maaf. “If the figures for creations continue to soar in the service crafts (+8%)”, which alone accounts for almost half of the creations of craft companies, “a severe decline is observed in the construction crafts ( -8%), food crafts (-7%) and manufacturing (-5%).

Although crafts cover "more than 300 different activities", two thirds of business creations are concentrated in "twenty main sectors".

With 38.010 craft businesses created in 2023, the cleaning sector is the most dynamic, well ahead of taxis/VTC (15.390) and beauty care (15.230).

Despite the slight slowdown in the creation of craft businesses in 2023, "the figures remain generally at a higher level than the figures" before the Covid-19 pandemic, "and this in all categories of activity" (food , construction, manufacturing and services), underline the ISM and the Maaf.

The authors of the barometer nevertheless identify a "subject of concern": the sudden drop in transfers of business assets (which are considered by the ISM and the Maaf as a form of business creation), numbering 8.210 in 2023 compared to 9.150 in 2022.

“Several factors can explain this trend, in particular the decline in activity in 2023 in many sectors which may have led to reluctance on the part of both sellers and buyers. The rise in bank interest rates is another obstacle,” we can say. read in the study.

The barometer data comes from INSEE national files and texts published in the Official Bulletin of Civil and Commercial Announcements (Bodacc), processed and used by the ISM with the support of the Maaf.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.