The vulnerability of Heathrow airport to snow has prompted Lonrho to turn from airplanes to ships to ensure its Africa-grown produce is delivered to European retail giants such as Marks & Spencer and Tesco.

The John Deere retailer-to-hotels conglomerate said that its Rollex business had lost £700,000 in turnover to December's chaos at the London air traffic hub, which was closed by snow for four consecutive days.

To "mitigate future risk", Rollex, which from its base in South Africa exports fruits and vegetables from throughout the continent, had approached shippers to guarantee deliveries to its European buyers, which also include the likes of Sainsbury, TFC Holland and Univeg.

The initiative, which Lonrho described as a "back-up" to airfreight, had been enabled by refrigeration advances, and comes amid growing unease among European consumers at the environmental costs of flying in foodstuffs.

Deere fillip

The Heathrow hiccups, combined with the impact of a stronger South African rand on Rollex's export competitiveness, stripped the business of revenue growth in the October-to-December quarter.

However, Lonrho's overall agribusiness division, by far the group's biggest unit, achieved a 32% jump to £15.2m in turnover, lifted by sales of its seafood distribution business, Oceanfresh, and "strong sales growth" at Trak-Auto, its John Deere dealership.

The expansion at Trak-Auto, the John Deere distributor in Mozambique, was based arond sales of a combined package of tractor, plough and harrow, with some other equipment and a service agreement thrown in, and offering a finance agreement with Standard Bank.

Lonrho reported "high" demand from potential customers to the John Deere dealership it is launching in Angola.

City reaction 

While the group reported falling revenues at its transport division, thanks to tough competition in the Kenyan aviation market, the results were welcomed by Panmure Gordon analyst Damian McNeela, who restated a "buy" recommendation on Lonrho shares, with a price target of 23p.

"The overall performance we believe is encouraging with all but the transport division reporting good revenue growth," Mr McNeela said.

"We forecast increased contributions from both the agribusiness and transport divisions as the year progresses."

However, Lonrho shares lost early gains to close flat at 18.0p in London.