Source: every figure comes from Companies House records and the accounts companies file there. How the figures are produced.

How many wholesale companies are there in Bristol?

There are 1,319 active wholesale companies with a registered office in Bristol, according to Companies House records. 479 of them are not dormant and have filed accounts in the last 21 months (data to 31 Jan 2026).

These figures last changed on and were last checked against the data on .

Active companies
1,319
With recent accounts, not dormant
479
Employees reported in accounts
3,756
Median net assets
£23,587
Data as of

Summary

Of the 1,319 active wholesale companies registered in Bristol, 105 are dormant and 479 are not dormant and have filed accounts in the last 21 months. The figures below describe those 479 companies, unless a table says otherwise.

Together, the 362 companies that reported at least one employee reported 3,756 employees in their latest accounts. The median among them is 3.

By size of accounts

Wholesale companies in Bristol by accounts category
Accounts category Companies Share
Micro-entity accounts 189 39.5%
Small company accounts 271 56.6%
Medium company accounts 4 0.8%
Medium or large company accounts 1 0.2%
Category not known 14 2.9%

The category is the type of accounts a company filed, which follows its size. Micro-entities are the smallest.

By number of employees

Wholesale companies in Bristol by average number of employees
Average employees Companies Share
None or not reported 117 24.4%
1 to 4 228 47.6%
5 to 9 52 10.9%
10 to 49 67 14.0%
50 to 249 14 2.9%
250 or more 1 0.2%

Average employees in the latest accounts. Many small companies have no employees other than their directors, or do not state a number.

By age

Active wholesale companies in Bristol by years since incorporation
Years since incorporation Companies Share
Under 2 years 472 35.8%
2 to 4 years 210 15.9%
5 to 9 years 239 18.1%
10 to 19 years 205 15.5%
20 years or more 193 14.6%

All active companies, dormant ones included.

By year of incorporation

Active wholesale companies in Bristol by year of incorporation
Incorporated in Companies
2021 52
2022 77
2023 73
2024 109
2025 200

Companies incorporated in each year that are still active. Companies that have since closed are not counted, so these are not the numbers formed in each year.

Typical figures

Median figures for wholesale companies in Bristol, with the number of companies each median is taken from
Figure Median Companies reporting it
Net assets £23,587 410
Employees (companies with one or more) 3 362
Cash at bank £55,947 256
Cash at bank per employee £10,797 218
Fixed assets per employee £6,468 189

The median is the middle company: half report more and half report less. Each median covers only the companies that reported that figure, so it describes those companies and not every company in the industry. A median is shown only when at least 30 companies reported the figure.

207 of the 375 companies with net assets for two consecutive years (55.2%) reported higher net assets than the year before.

Download CSV of these statistics Every figure on this page, unformatted.

How these figures were produced

Industry
Companies with any of these SIC codes on their Companies House record:
  • every code beginning 46 – Wholesale trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles
Location
The post town of the registered office address is Bristol.
Active companies
Companies whose status at Companies House is active. Dissolved companies are not in the data.
Recent accounts
Accounts made up to a date in the 21 months before 31 Jan 2026, the newest accounts date in the data.
Registered addresses
60 of the 479 companies with recent accounts (12.5%) are registered at an address shared by 50 or more companies, such as an accountant's office. Those companies may trade somewhere else.