A construction to care home company run by Otley -based entrepreneur Lawrence Tomlinson has signed the UK’s biggest iPhone deal with O2 and bought every member of staff a new Apple iPhone handset.

LNT Group has bought 1,700 phones to improve internal communications and boost business.

Lawrence Tomlinson, chairman, drove the deal through seeing it as a chance to ‘future proof’ communications around his Leeds-based group. He said the move had been driven by his desire to harness technology yet retain a family business feel and keep in touch with everyone.

The company has developed its own iLNT App to send messages to every staff member or specific groups within businesses. Staff will be able to use them to check their hours and holidays as well as get important corporate communications.