Superior Plus to divest sodium chlorate business

Superior Plus wants to sell its Erco Worldwide chemical business so it can focus on propane distribution. Erco is a Canadian producer of chlorine, caustic soda, and the paper-bleaching chemical sodium chlorate. It had $522 million in sales last year. “We are very comfortable continuing to own the business if the process does not result in an acceptable valuation,” Superior Plus CEO Luc Desjardins says. In 2015, Superior Plus attempted to buy another Canadian sodium chlorate maker, Canexus, but the US Federal Trade Commission blocked the deal as anticompetitive.