A COMMERCIAL catering equipment company in Hampshire has landed a year-long contract worth £300,000 to install school kitchens.

Southampton-based HCE will be installing three school meal kitchens for a London council in the first steps of the Goverment's flagship policy to modernise secondary schools in England.

Lambeth is the first council in the capital to start constructing new schools as part of the government's £45 billion initiative called Building Schools for the Future.

HCE, which has 28 staff and nearly 1,500 clients across the UK, will provide a one-stop service for The Michael Tippett School on behalf of builder Apollo in Education.

Work on two other schools will follow as part of the deal involving contract management, supply, installation and service.

HCE general manager Jon Greep said: "We were up against tough competition as ever, but our proven track record over the years in the education sector proved the clincher.

" HCE has carried out a raft of contracts at a number of educational centres across the south, including Crescent Primary School, Eastleigh, and the Mill Chase Community School in Bordon.

The company, in business for 27 years, has a projected annual turnover of £5m, is celebrating its first anniversary at its new premises at the appropriately named School Lane Chandler's Ford.