Steve is working hard at Brampton Pharmacy.

It’s lunchtime and there’s a bit of a rush on with customers waiting to collect their prescriptions.

No break for Steve this lunchtime. In fact he’s going to crack on fetching the tablets and medicines all afternoon and if there’s a delivery he’ll restock the shelves after this colleagues have gone home, taking meticulous care to place the boxes on the shelves in correct date order.

Steve, you see, is a robot.

A common sight in German and Danish pharmacies where 75 per cent are automated, but a first for Cumbria and one of only 200 in the UK.

He’s called Steve because the way he zips back and forth in the 3m cabinet reminds staff of a certain Olympic rower.

Steve is a sign perhaps that recent media interest in automation is not so much hype after all. You can tell the robots are coming when one starts working in your local rural pharmacy.

He’s also a good indicator of owner Phil Jobson’s commitment to innovate in his Brampton and Longtown businesses.

Phil, who is pharmacist himself, is keen to emphasise that the robot’s arrival has nothing to do with reducing staffing costs. “The focus for the business has be on efficiency and quality of service provision because it is relatively limited in its potential to expand.

“The robot gives us the opportunity to develop the pharmacy services within our NHS contract which we have had not had time to do because we are dispensing medicines,” he says.

The pharmacy would now have more time for services such as medicine consultations, flu vaccinations, health monitoring, HIV testing and giving advice on health issues and disease prevention, he added.

And it was Mr Jobson’s desire to innovate that contributed to his family’s decision to sell Jobsons Animal Health, which had operations in both Longtown and Brampton plus four other locations.

It will give him time to concentrate on Nutripharm, which focuses on research and development of animal nutrition products.

Nutripharm, based in English Street, Longtown, manufactures the products developed by Phil and has been supported by Innovus to research a new nutritional project which he is understandably less keen to give details about.

“The grant meant we could get some very high level research done using consultants used to working at a global pharmaceutical level.

“We have had some early livestock trials, but it’s not the perfect article. It’s an exciting project. I am firm believer that you have to be innovative if you are going to survive in competitive environment.”