LONDON: B&Q is upgrading staff access to the internet. Staff at its US stores will get the latest iPads to ensure they are as well connected as their customers.

 "The consumers are coming in with better technology and better information than those working in the stores," Ian Cheshire, chief executive of B&Q owner Kingfisher, said at the World Retail Congress in Berlin.

"Our staff have less access to the Web than they do." He said DIY store Lowe's in the United States was handing out iPhones to staff and that service applications using mass market mobile devices could play a big role in the future in stores.