The Well flagship store in Highgate, north London, was one of the first to undergo a transformation to develop the company’s new retail concept. This included a new-look store, refreshed product offering and greater focus on the added value that pharmacy can offer. And almost a year on, it’s going from strength to strength.

Caroline Humphrey, senior marketing manager at Well, comments: “The store is much more warm and welcoming and we’ve got a broader retail range to cover more customers. Here we have lots of young families and then right through to the elderly so we have a broad customer base and we want to make sure all their needs are met.”

She adds: “We’re also really focusing on the idea of feeling well and keeping well so it’s about offering a holistic approach that extends beyond medicines and traditional treatments to include things like wearable fitness trackers and products to help people relax."

Raising awareness of pharmacy services is one of Well’s main aims and one way this is being achieved is through the free-of-charge health kiosk, which gives a health check, including blood pressure, BMI, weight and body fat measurements, in four minutes.

Caroline describes the kiosk as “the shining star of the store” and explains that it was “launched in nine of the 12 trial stores and we’ve had 17,000 people use it which is great. It’s been brilliant for driving intervention and getting people to their GP for blood pressure checks and it’s a kick starter for pharmacy staff conversations.”

Well has recently partnered with the Stroke Association. All its stores are currently fundraising and raising awareness of stroke and the importance of keeping an eye on blood pressure and the kiosk is playing an important role in this.

Currently 12 Well stores have adopted the new retail format and the pharmacy group hopes to roll it out to another 36 stores in 2017. Caroline says: "We’ve got that Co-op legacy but we’re showing that we’re moving forward and have a modern approach to health.”