Tahina plugs into autonomous retail technology as it gives a glimpse into its new flagship London store

Tahina has released the final designs for its autonomous food store which is set to launch in London during Q2 2025.

“Our dishes have been developed by an executive chef with a wealth of experience acquired through fine dining European establishments to the top premium casual British groups. Unlike a lot of ‘fast’ food, Tahina uses quality ingredients to create grab and go food that’s truly delicious,” says Emilio Malik, one of the founders of Tahina who is also behind the West End restaurant Lazeez Lebanese Tapas, which has been a fixture of Mayfair’s Duke Street for 16 years.

The flagship store will be fully autonomous via a range of technology, including AI, intelligent weight shelves, motion detector sensors and cloud computing.

“The world is changing rapidly and we’ve crafted Tahina around these new ways of living,” says Malik. “Our store is tech driven, using the latest developments in autonomous retail and AI to provide a seamless and simple experience for our customers.”

He adds that, due to the ‘plug and play’ nature of the store, the concept can easily be rolled out across multiple sites.

“We’re really excited about the possibilities. We believe there could be two types of Tahina store: flagship stores such as the one we’re launching, plus contract stores designed to be integrated with minimal services into access controlled environments, such as offices, shared workspaces, hospitals, university campuses and airports.” 

He adds: “We want to offer maximum benefit for customers, but we also want minimum impact on the planet, so we’ve built sustainability into every element of Tahina. All our dishes are plant-based, cruelty free and seasonal, and we support local suppliers where possible.”

“Our store will have a closed loop recycling system for packaging, and we’ll work with charities to distribute surplus food or turn it into green electricity.”

2024 RTIH INNOVATION AWARDS

Autonomous stores are a key focus area for the sixth edition of the RTIH Innovation Awards, which is now open for entries.

The awards, sponsored by Scala, CADS, 3D Cloud, Brightpearl by Sage’s Lightning 50, and Retail Technology Show 2025, and Business France celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

Key 2024 dates

Friday, 25th October: Award entry deadline 

Tuesday, 29th October: 2024 shortlist revealed

30th October-6th November: Judging days

Thursday, 21st November: Winners announced at the 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards ceremony, to be held at RIBA’s 66 Portland Place HQ in Central London.