Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, was forced to pull out of giving a speech at the NFU conference after suffering a ski-ing accident last Friday.

Sir Terry was due to speak at the conference this afternoon, but his place was taken by Tesco executive director Lucy Neville-Rolfe.

She began her speech by saying: "I am only sorry Terry is not with us. He had a ski-ing accident at the end of last week and is on the mend, but not yet back at work."

More on Neville-Rolfe's controversial offering is to come on freshinfo tomorrow.

NFU president Peter Kendall had earlier said tongue in cheek that perhaps Sir Terry had run into a group of British poultry farmers during his après ski.

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