Under the terms of the deal, Selecta will provided 13 cold beverage and snack vending machines and one hot drinks unit in various locations at the further and higher education college in the heart of the historic city.

The introduction of the new vending offer coincides with the £50 million redevelopment of the college which will create 21st century education and learning facilities including a new Children's Centre, Technology centre, Land-Based Centre, Motor Vehicle Centre and a Post-16 Centre, which will house modern classrooms, study rooms and science laboratories. When complete, the redevelopment campus will also provide a number of 'front-of-house' services which will be open to the public. Among these will be a hair and beauty salon, floristry shop and travel agency all with training facilities. New catering facilities include a brand new food hall, 'grab and go' shop, Fairtrade coffee shop and a hospitality suite.

Selecta's vending offer at Canterbury college will include leading-brand cold drinks from Coca-Cola and Britvic, top-selling snack and confectionery items from Nestle and Cadbury's and hot beverages from Nescafe and PG Tips.

Staff and students looking for healthier options are also catered for by Selecta's Balanced range which offers a variety of 'lighter' options fitting pre-set nutritional requirements for customers who want to know more about the nutritional value of the food they are buying. For a snack to satisfy Balanced criteria, it must contain 200 calories or less, no more than 6g of fat and a maximum of 0.25g of sodium, while cold drinks must contain less than 5g of added sugar.

"As we are not tied to any single equipment or ingrediant supplier, we have been able to tailor the vending offer at Canterbury College to suit the specific needs of staff and students," explains Selecta sales and marketing director Jonathan Barr. "We have considerable experience of providing vending services to clients in the higher and further education sector and are very much looking forward to working with Canterbury College in this exciting phrase of its development."

David Burr, commercial facilities co-ordinator at Canterbury College, says: "It is vitally important that we are able to provide our students and staff with a varied range of healthy eating options and Selecta is able to fully cater for these requirements."