Business
Approval of New Dispensing Facility
MedPal AI plc has opened its new, NHS-approved robotic dispensing facility in Runcorn, named Sarus Court, which is its largest to date at 23,000 sq ft. This facility, representing over £1 million in investment in robotics and automation, is designed to process over 10,000 prescription orders daily once fully operational, significantly exceeding the current monthly item levels of major competitors like Well.co.uk and Boots. Sarus Court will operate alongside the company's Swaffham facility and is expected to become one of the UK's most sophisticated and lowest-cost pharmacy dispensing platforms, supporting MedPal AI's growth in various pharmacy services. Disclaimer*
About this update from Medpal Ai Plc
1 July 2026 MedPal AI plc ("MedPal AI") or the "Company") New Dispensing Facility in Runcorn Opening of Sarus Court - the Group's largest robotic dispensing facility to date NHS approval received for new 23,000 sq. ft location; designed capacity of over 10,000 prescription orders per day. MedPal AI plc, the AI-powered integrated digital health and pharmacy group, is pleased to announce the opening of its new robotic pharmacy dispensing and distribution facility at Sarus Court, Runcorn ("Sarus Court") together with receipt of NHS approval for the new location. Sarus Court will be the Company's largest pharmacy robotic distribution facility to date and is expected to provide approximately 23,000 sq ft of operational capacity when fully completed. It will replace the existing pharmacy distribution facility in Runcorn, as set out in the Company's announcement of 29 April 2026, and operate in addition to the Company's facility in Swaffham. The facility is being commissioned in phases and will, from this month, process more than 2,000 prescription items per day, with infrastructure designed to support throughput of over 10,000 prescription items per day once fully completed and operational. The new facility benefits from over £1 million of investment in robotics, automation and MedPal AI's proprietary pharmacy technology stack. The Board of MedPal AI believes this investment, combined with Sarus Court's scale, workflow design and direct-to-patient operating model, positions the facility to become one of the most sophisticated and lowest-cost pharmacy dispensing platforms in the UK at scale. At full designed capacity, Sarus Court would be capable of processing more than 300,000 prescription items per month. For comparison, the latest public PharmData leaderboard reviewed by the Company shows Well.co.uk at 142,011 items and Boots at 87,992 items for February 2026. Sarus Court's planned capacity would therefore be more than twice the Well.co.uk monthly item level and more than three times the Boots monthly item level shown on that leaderboard. The scale of Sarus Court also compares favourably with other major investments in UK pharmacy automation. Boots announced in September 2025 the opening of its first Regional Dispensing Hub in Basingstoke, a 20,000 sq ft automated facility supporting 150 stores in the South of Eng...