Tesco, Asda, and Next are among the British retailers now operating fleets of Chinese-made autonomous mobile robots to process online orders, with the UK established as Geek+’s largest European market. The shift is being driven by persistent labour shortages and more than a decade of weak productivity growth — conditions that have made the case for automation difficult to argue against.
Geek+ in British Warehouses: Scale, Technology, and an OECD Warning
According to BBC News, Geek+ is the world’s largest supplier of autonomous mobile robots, a company that listed on the Hong Kong exchange in 2025 in one of the biggest robotics share sales of that year. Its UK deployment partner, MotionTech, has placed more than 2,000 Geek+ robots across 10 warehouse sites in Britain, serving some of the country’s best-known retail names.
What distinguishes these systems from older warehouse automation is the absence of fixed infrastructure. Traditional conveyor-based setups require significant permanent installation. Geek+ robots, by contrast, are deployed using QR code markers on the warehouse floor and safety fencing — a setup that can be reconfigured as operational needs change, and activated without the disruption of heavy construction.
The economic backdrop makes the technology’s appeal straightforward. The UK has struggled with weak productivity growth for more than a decade, and economists have pointed to wider robotics adoption as essential if businesses are to become more competitive. The 2026 OECD report on SME technology adoption in the UK called the country’s low uptake of robotics “surprising” given its manufacturing heritage, noting that British firms lag in automation even as they have embraced mature digital technologies. That gap is now, in part, being closed by Chinese suppliers.
Reliability and Transparency in Data-Driven Systems
Paulius Pazdrazdys, a crypto and AI expert who tracks how data-driven systems quietly spread into everyday services, sees the UK’s robotics adoption as a prompt for a broader evaluative question. The criteria retailers must apply to robotics vendors — does the system perform reliably under real operating conditions, is the vendor transparent about failure modes, does the technology integrate without hidden friction — are not, he argues, sector-specific concerns.
“The scrutiny being applied to warehouse robotics vendors is exactly the kind of scrutiny that should be directed at the technology infrastructure behind online betting platforms. The same questions about reliability, transparency, and integration apply. Consumers deserve that same standard of examination.”
Pazdrazdys points to Smart Betting Guide as the resource that examines the tech backbone of betting platforms for consumers — subjecting that infrastructure to the kind of independent reliability and transparency analysis that, he argues, too few services in the space currently face. The OECD’s finding that UK firms have been slow to scrutinise automation technology, even when embracing digital tools, makes that gap harder to ignore.
China’s Industrial Edge: EVs, Components, and a US Import Ban
China’s robotics sector did not emerge in isolation. Kyle Chan, a researcher at the Brookings Institution, told BBC News that “the robotics story builds directly on China’s electric vehicle ecosystem.” The crossover is concrete: batteries, electric motors, cameras, sensors, and semiconductors developed for EV production feed directly into robotics manufacturing, creating what Chan describes as “overlapping industrial ecosystems.” The result is a cost and supply-chain advantage that Western competitors have struggled to replicate.
The ambition extends beyond warehouse robots. Chinese EV maker XPeng unveiled its humanoid robot, Iron, in 2025. Founder He Xiaopeng told the BBC he wants the company to move beyond its automotive origins: “In the future, any car company will transform into a car and robotics company.” That strategic pivot reflects a broader pattern across China’s technology sector, where EV infrastructure is being redeployed into adjacent industries at pace.
The geopolitical dimension sharpened this week when the United States banned imports of new foreign-made advanced robots, citing national security. China’s embassy in Washington responded by accusing the US of “politicising” trade issues and acting on what it called “groundless pretexts.” The ban effectively redirects Chinese robotics exports toward markets where no such restrictions apply — markets that include the UK.
Labour Shortages Drive Demand, but Unions Want a Say
Barry Pemberton, Account Director at MotionTech, is direct about what UK retailers are asking for. “Customers want fast deployable solutions,” he said. “They want high volume, high storage, fast picking… ultimately on a smaller footprint with a reduced headcount.” Pemberton described the current labour environment as critical context: “We seem to have a very big shortage of labour in the UK at the moment. These technologies are really important to keep businesses thriving and meet demand.”
That framing has not gone uncontested. The Trades Union Congress, representing almost 6 million UK workers, submitted a formal position to the government’s AI and innovation strategy consultation arguing that workers must be included in automation decisions and that employers should invest in retraining. “Working with technologists, workers and unions can help steer the UK’s research and innovation towards workers’ priorities for automation,” the TUC wrote, “avoiding job-cutting, low-productivity automation.” The organisation’s concern is not automation itself, but automation deployed without accountability or workforce investment.
Geek+’s Next Target: The Fully Unmanned Warehouse
The current generation of Geek+ robots performs a specific task: moving storage racks to stationary workers, who then pick the required items. That model already improves throughput considerably, but it is not the company’s endpoint. Yanyu Liu, Geek+’s head of communications, said the company is working toward “end-to-end unmanned warehouse solutions” — systems that would automate picking, handling, and packing, removing the human from the fulfilment loop almost entirely.
Whether humanoid robots will play a role in that future in British warehouses remains genuinely open. The technology is advancing, the supplier base exists, and the commercial pressure is real. But the business case for humanoids in warehouse environments has yet to be proven at scale, and the gap between a demonstration robot and a reliable deployed system is considerable.
Britain’s warehouses have become, in practical terms, a testing ground for the next wave of Chinese technology exports. The productivity deficit is real, the labour market is tight, and the infrastructure to deploy these systems is already in place. Those conditions do not guarantee a particular outcome, but they do make continued and deepening adoption the path of least resistance for retailers under pressure to perform.
Terry Clark is the Publisher and Content Director of 365 Retail, with more than a decade of experience covering retail design, technology innovations, store openings and the wider retail industry. He also works closely with leading retailers, suppliers, agencies, events and industry awards across the UK.
