Richard Stephenson was highly commended in the Retail Skills Award, thanks to the impressive impact he has made at the Right Medicine Pharmacy group

Richard, based in West Lothian, joined the pharmacy group after previously working as a sales rep in retail. He applied his knowledge to improve the pharmacies’ retail spaces by introducing new items, POS and promotions, which resulted in a 30 per cent increase in sales.

Judge Mimi Lau, director of pharmacy services at Numark, commented: “Richard has used his retail skills across a number of pharmacies, which encompass raising pharmacy standards.”

Richard enjoys the “huge amount of variation” in his role, which covers everything from buying to merchandising, and adds that he chose to work in pharmacy “due to the unique set up and opportunity to give outstanding service every day”.

As head of retail & operations, Richard currently works within the retail space of 16 branches of Right Medicine Pharmacy, where he is responsible for planning the promotional space, organising funding with suppliers, producing POS and arranging layouts to fit in with the pharmacy or the season.

Richard appreciated the fact that the awards put different aspects of pharmacy into the limelight. “The sort of work myself and counter assistants do is not an area that is really recognised within pharmacy,” he said. “I’m flying the flag for the company.”