3 UK retail giants tap Geek+ robots to close logistics productivity gap

For supply chain managers grappling with a decade of sluggish productivity growth and the relentless rise of e‑commerce, the appearance of silent silver robots whizzing through British warehouses is a welcome turning point. Geek+’s autonomous mobile robots, now running in Tesco, Asda, and Next fulfilment centres, promise a step-change in throughput without the capital-intensive, rigid infrastructure of conveyor-based systems. The UK logistics sector, still largely manual by European standards, is suddenly at an automation inflection point.

A quiet logistics revolution is unfolding inside British warehouses. Every time a customer clicks 'buy' on an online order from Tesco, Asda, or Next, the chances are that a squat silver autonomous mobile robot (AMR) from Chinese robotics maker Geek+ is already gliding beneath a storage rack, lifting a shelf and carrying it to a picking station. This article draws on new BBC reporting from Geek+'s factory in Hefei and a 2026 OECD study to reveal how the world's largest AMR supplier is conquering the UK retail landscape – and why it matters for productivity, supply chains, and the high-street's digital shift.

“

Geek+’s autonomous mobile robots, now running in Tesco, Asda, and Next fulfilment centres, promise a step-change in throughput without the capital-intensive, rigid infrastructure of conveyor-based systems.

The scale and speed of the adoption are notable. Geek+, which raised a massive round via its Hong Kong IPO in 2025, has rapidly become the dominant player in the global AMR space. In the UK, it has already embedded its technology with three of the biggest retail names: Tesco – the country's largest grocer, Asda – the major supermarket chain, and Next – the prominent fashion and homewares retailer. The British market has become the company's largest in Europe, facilitated by local partner MotionTec. This is not experimental pilot programmes; it is systemic roll-out to meet soaring e‑commerce volumes. The BBC notes that the robots work 24/7, navigate via simple QR-code floor markers, and require only lightweight safety fencing – a stark contrast to the fixed conveyor systems and steel infrastructure that have defined warehouse automation for decades.

The economic backdrop heightens the significance. The UK has suffered from a stubbornly weak productivity growth for over a decade. The OECD’s 2026 SME Technology Adoption report singles out robotics and automation as essential to reversing this trend, calling Britain’s low robotics uptake "surprising" given its manufacturing heritage. While UK firms have eagerly adopted mature digital technologies, they have lagged behind European peers in physical automation. With one of Europe’s largest e‑commerce and logistics sectors still in the early stages of automation, a vast addressable market stands open for companies like Geek+.

By replacing miles of conveyors with fleets of AMRs, retailers gain not only higher picking speeds but also the ability to store goods in high-density racks that would be unreachable or unsafe for human pickers. Errors fall, and the same warehouse footprint can handle significantly more stock-keeping units. For supply chain executives, this flexibility translates into lower capital expenditure per square foot and the ability to reconfigure storage patterns dynamically – a crucial edge when seasonal peaks or promotional campaigns upend normal flow. More fundamentally, the AMR model requires no permanent structural changes; a non-automated site can be robot-enabled in a matter of weeks. That speed of deployment is a game-changer for retailers that have hesitated to automate because of the long payback cycles of traditional materials-handling systems.