Elior lands largest FE contract with University of Sunderland

Elior UK has landed its largest further education contract to oversee the food and drink at the University of Sunderland.

As part of the 10-year deal, the contract caterer is making "substantial investment" into the facilities at the university's two Sunderland campuses where it will cater for more than 12,000 students across nine food and drink outlets.

The offer will include several newly built coffee shops, including a Starbucks and several artisan coffee shops owned, operated and trademarked by Elior, including Barista & Baker, Fontanella and Green Parrot.

Each campus will also benefit from a new food court, featuring Elior's branded street food concepts.

Connor Hickman, business development director for education at Elior UK, said: "From artisan coffee shops to global flavours, the offer has been designed to appeal to the tastes of students today. To help future-proof the offer, we've made all the new spaces as multifunctional as possible.

"But equally, we want to respect the heritage of the university. We've been careful not to make changes for the sake of it, and we've kept lots of the original outlet names."

Elior operates high-profile catering contracts across the B&I, health and care home, defence, education, stadia and heritage sectors, and also operates the F&B facilities at the University of Roehampton and Kingston University London.

Elior was not able to confirm the contract value.

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