The St George’s Centre serves and supports over 12,500 students on the university campus and includes a lounge bar, coffee shop and study zone as well as welfare offices and student accommodation comprising 200 en-suite rooms and 10 three-bed family houses.

Elior is creating a contemporary coffee shop offer under its Barista and Baker brand, serving barista prepared Fairtrade coffee, artisan sandwiches, cakes and pastries. Reflecting modern global food trends, a new hot grab and go offer will also feature Japanese inspired soup and noodle concept, UMaMi and ChU*, which is based on Malaysian, Indian, Oriental and North African street food cuisine.

The Lounge Bar will feature new menus offering Middle Eastern mezze platters and Italian antipasto sharing boards. Elior’s design your own gourmet burger concept Heavenly Burger joins handcrafted pizzas from Pizza Foundry and a range of traditional favourites with a gastro-pub feel.

In line with its strategy to provide first class people services and an outstanding customer experience, Elior, under the Ellipse brand, will also provide professional, bespoke reception management services at the centre including switchboard and student helpdesk.

Lee Soden, director of facilities management, Canterbury Christ Church University says: “We were looking for market leading innovation in the delivery of our retail food and beverage concepts and expertise in providing integrated facilities services in areas of cleaning, security and reception services. Elior demonstrated a clear and deep understanding of the university market and of what it takes to deliver a ‘home from home’ service to students.”

Nigel Jobson, business development executive, Elior UK says: “We are delighted to have been given the opportunity to work with Canterbury Christ Church University and we’ve developed a range of exciting food and beverage offers and integrated site services to encourage students to enjoy the St George’s Centre facilities. Providing an outstanding customer experience is paramount to our success.”