A premium food consumer goods brand reversed a stop-ship order from its largest customer within one month and converted seasonal placement into year-round business.
The brief was straightforward: save the business. The timeline was not. The client's largest customer had stopped accepting shipments without warning, without explanation, and without an obvious path to resolution. This single retailer represented the majority of local revenue. Leadership on the client side had recently changed. The local team was new and inclined toward conciliation. The counterparty's local buyer appeared to be exercising leverage, though her motivations were never fully transparent.
The stop-ship order turned what might have been a negotiation into a crisis. The local team faced immediate pressure to concede whatever was necessary to restart orders. They were uncomfortable with escalation. The counterparty's buyer maintained opacity about what would actually move the needle. And partway through the engagement, the regional director who had initiated it departed, creating uncertainty about internal commitment.
The engagement team mapped stakeholder decision rights on the counterparty side and identified which client relationships could reach them. The local conversation had stalled, so an alternative path at the global level was identified. The team worked directly with the client on framing and preparation, then orchestrated a conversation at the right level. The global conversation bundled multiple outstanding issues, creating room for trades that local teams could not access. The final negotiation was conducted by the client's global team — the engagement focused on getting the issue to the right level and preparing them to navigate it.
Verbal agreement to resume orders came within one month. The final deal closed within three months. More significantly, the placement was restructured from seasonal to year-round, and a global-level relationship was established that extended beyond the original issue.
Most engagements started exactly like this one.