SQM vs USFD Comparison

Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile is a Chilean commodities producer with significant operations in lithium (primarily used in batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems), specialty and standard potassium fertilizers, iodine (primarily used in X-ray contrast media), and solar salts. The company extracts these materials through its high-quality salt brine deposits and caliche ore. SQM also sells lithium concentrate from a joint venture hard rock lithium project in Australia and expanding its lithium refining assets in China.

US Foods is a leading domestic foodservice distributor, generating $39 billion in sales in fiscal 2025 and capturing a 10% share of the fragmented industry. The firm sells and distributes more than 350,000 food and nonfood products to about 250,000 customer locations, including independent restaurants (33% of fiscal 2025 sales), chain restaurants (23%), healthcare and hospitality clients (27%), and other end markets (17%), largely consisting of education and government contracts. US Foods also operates 98 cash-and-carry locations under the Chef'Store banner. The firm's physical network spans 76 distribution facilities and 14 broadline production centers.