WILLITON'S pharmacy has been named as one of the top five of 1,700 pharmacies nationwide in an in-house competition.

The outlet in Killick Way has won through to the national finals of Lloyds Pharmacy Branch of the Year after walking away with the regional title.

A team of four from Williton went up against eight other teams from the South in the regional heat, which was held in Bristol last week.

Its success means the branch has now been awarded a coveted place in the company's academy and will be given a series of quarterly business challenges over the next 12 months to determine whether it is named as the overall winner.

The accolade marks a remarkable turnaround for the Williton pharmacy, which on the admission of current manager Jonathan Wood was struggling when he took over just under three years ago.

"Each team had to win an area competition of 40 pharmacies to attend the regional heat, so having been placed first out of 40 initially, we were then placed first in the South out of 360," said Mr Wood.

"We have now made the final five out of a total of 1,700 pharmacies nationwide - it's a huge accolade because these awards tend to go to larger pharmacies rather than tucked away branches like Williton."

The Williton branch employs nine full and part-time staff and the three employees who made up the winning team with Mr Wood - Gill Trunks, Ben Bryant and Brenda Gallagher - are all long serving.

"It's really good that they were part of the original staff and have seen the turnaround in the branch," said Mr Wood.

The place in the finals was won on the basis of a written submission followed by a presentation to a panel of company directors, which included a 20-minute question and answer session.

The presentation covered business performance, customer feedback scores, stockholding, staff training and other business measures.

The Williton team even included video messages from the rest of the branch staff.

And there was also a fun element to the competition, with truffle making, a strictly ballroom challenge and giant board games.

Mr Wood, who has been a pharmacist for the past 19 years, celebrated a personal success last year when he made the top five in the Pharma Awards.

He made the final in the pharmacy manager category of the prestigious competition, which covers all pharmacy employers and is open to all pharmacists.