Your biggest retailer just changed the rules.

Your largest retail customer calls.

Maybe you're being ranged out.

Maybe your shelf space is shrinking.

Maybe margins are being renegotiated.

Maybe the retailer wants significantly more promotional support.

Or perhaps a category review has simply gone against you.

For businesses where one customer represents 25%, 40% or even 60% of revenue, this isn't simply a sales issue.

It can change the economics of the entire company.

Don't panic and discount everything.

Understand why.

• Is this a retailer problem?
• A category problem?
• A brand problem?
• A pricing problem?
• A product problem?
• Or has your commercial relationship simply not been managed well enough?

Then quantify the impact.

Revenue matters, but so do contribution margin, inventory exposure, manufacturing commitments, marketing commitments and cash.

Run two workstreams simultaneously.

Protect the existing relationship.

Understand the retailer's position, category performance, shopper data, competitor movement, economics and what would genuinely improve the proposition.

And: reduce dependency.

That may involve other retailers, international expansion, D2C, marketplaces, distributors, alternative channels or new products.

But diversification has to be deliberate.

Replacing one oversized customer with another oversized customer is not diversification.

Winning a major retailer feels like success.

Becoming dependent on them isn't.

The strongest consumer businesses build distribution while retaining enough customer, channel and geographic diversity that no single buyer determines their future.