Chinese robots boost UK retail productivity

Chinese robotics firm Geek+ has deployed over 2,000 autonomous mobile robots across 10 UK warehouse sites for retailers including Tesco, Asda, and Next. The robots, built in Hefei, automate shelf retrieval to improve picking speed and storage efficiency. Britain's weak productivity growth and labor shortages drive adoption, with Geek+ becoming the world's largest supplier of such robots. Unions urge focus on job quality, not just cost-cutting.