Pharmacy2U, the U.K.’s largest online pharmacy, has completed the first phase of its new automated dispensing facility at Bardon, Leicestershire, as online drugstores aim to be the next big warehouse growth sector.

The deal comes soon after Amazon acquired U.S. pharmacy business PillPack in a deal that is sure to shake up both the bricks-and-mortar and online pharmacy sectors.

The 65K SF unit at Mountpark Logistics' 72-acre Barton site has the capacity to deliver up to 6,500,000 items a month.

Pharmacy2U is managing NHS repeat prescriptions from request to delivery for more than 270,000 patients across the country and is growing more than 100% year on year.

Challenger online pharmacy businesses are growing but so far their property requirements are small.

Logistics analysts have warned that growth in the U.K. could be inhibited by the NHS' own online medicines ordering services, which effectively operate like a click-and-collect business. The U.K. regulatory regime is also more testing than that in the U.S. they say.

Pharmacy2U joins Amazon and Eddie Stobart on the first phase of Mountpark Barton, which comprises three units totalling 1.45M SF.