When a major customer suddenly orders more

Suppose one of your biggest grocery accounts increases a promotional order for chilled drinks. It still expects the same delivery date and freshness, while the operation already has other customers’ loads to prepare. There is pressure to make it happen, and a good commercial reason to try.

I would start by asking what we can actually supply and what changes if we say yes. If covering the extra volume means moving stock from another customer’s load, we need to understand how that commitment will be covered too. Getting the big order out is only part of the work.

Start with the options your operation actually has

The first question is whether we produce the drinks or consolidate and distribute them. That changes the options available when the order grows.

A producer may be able to draw stock from several planned loads to cover the extra requirement. Some other deliveries could move later, with their goods replaced from subsequent loads. Whether that works depends on what is available and how those other orders can be covered. It needs a conversation between sales and operations before either team assumes the extra order is taken care of.

For a business consolidating and shipping goods, I would look at how quickly we can turn incoming loads around. Could cross-docking help? Could we consolidate loads differently to get the right goods moving? The question is what this operation can do with the supply coming through it.

Direct shipping may also help us through a temporary surge. I am cautious about it because goods bypassing our facility also bypass our opportunity to catch a quality problem there. That opportunity matters when something goes wrong. It is a trade-off to understand when considering whether a direct movement would help us get through the immediate demand.

Weather can create a related capacity challenge. In FoodNavigator’s June 2026 reporting on heatwave preparation, Augustus Bambridge-Sutton writes, “Food companies must prepare for short, sharp demand spikes.” For our chilled-drinks operation, preparation starts with understanding which of these options we can actually use when demand changes.

Make displaced commitments visible

If we decide to redirect stock already allocated to other customers, I want sales and operations to understand which loads change. Which customers would receive goods later? Where will the replacement stock come from? Can we cover those orders from other incoming or planned loads?

Those questions belong in the decision to accommodate the larger order. Sales needs to know what the operation is being asked to change, and operations needs to know what sales is agreeing with the customers affected. Otherwise, one team can be working to the revised priority while the other still expects the original deliveries.

With a major account, I would sometimes accept the risk involved in moving things around. That customer may have alternatives, and it knows the weight its business carries. If it thinks another supplier will be more reliable, keeping the account can become harder. A new decision-maker at the customer may also look differently at a relationship we have had for years.

But this has to remain a temporary response. Slowing some smaller accounts while we cover a surge for a week or two may be workable. Continuing to do it means those other commitments keep absorbing the changes. We need to know how they will recover, and we need sales involved in that conversation.

Give affected customers time to adjust

The earlier we can explain a shortage or changed delivery, the more chance the customer has to work with us. Finding out that goods will not arrive when they were already needed leaves very little room to respond.

I would tell affected customers what we expect to be short of, what we can offer and what that means for the delivery we had discussed. They may be able to move something around on their side. That possibility is worth exploring while they still have time to make a decision.

There can also be value in an earlier warning, before the shortage is certain. If we are hearing that supply may be tight, we can tell the customer that is what we are hearing. A possible problem should be described as a possible problem. We do not need to turn it into a definite failure before giving someone useful notice.

This depends on having a conversation in which the customer can explain what it can accommodate. Some will have more flexibility than others. Earlier communication helps us discover what can be worked out; it does not mean every customer will be able to accept a change.

Address the pattern when exceptions keep recurring

If the major account keeps increasing its order, I would ask sales to have a frank conversation about the volume it really needs. We may be able to cover a particular increase by rearranging loads, but repeatedly making that adjustment is a reason to revisit the plan.

The conversation can be straightforward: we have found ways to help, and we need to understand whether this higher volume is going to continue. If it is, can we plan to supply that volume? That gives sales and operations a requirement to work with instead of repeatedly discovering that the original order was too low.

Research on promotional demand reinforces the value of exchanging useful information. In their 2010 study of a UK soft-drink company, Usha Ramanathan and Luc Muyldermans highlight “the importance of collecting and exchanging the proper supply chain information”. Their work examines demand factors for promotional planning and forecasting. For our customer conversation, the practical question is what demand we should be preparing to meet.

Remaining shelf life may also be something to discuss. If the customer sells the drinks quickly, it may be able to accept less remaining shelf life than originally requested. That needs to be an agreed freshness requirement suited to how it sells the product. We should establish that with the customer before treating it as an option for fulfilling the order.

The sales relationship makes a difference here. A good relationship gives us room to explain what we can do and where the current arrangement becomes difficult. If those conversations cannot happen, finding an ongoing arrangement that works becomes much harder.

The next time the order increases, I would want a clear account of what can move, which other commitments change and how they will be covered. Then, if the same request keeps returning, use that experience to agree the volume and expectations we can plan around. Serving an important customer well includes making its next order more workable for the people who have to deliver it.