The Dannon Co. opened a new research and development facility at its corporate headquarters in White Plains, N.Y. The $9 million facility occupies 14,000 square feet on the first floor of the headquarters.

Previously, the R&D team was based in Dannon’s pilot plant at its Fort Worth, Texas, processing plant. The White Plains facility, officially called the Dannon Discovery & Innovation Center, includes equipment for manufacturing dairy foods. The move to corporate headquarters will allow the R&D team to work more closely with the marketing team, which Stewart Townsend told Dairy Foods is “a great benefit.”

Townsend, the senior director of R&D, called the innovation center a scalable “state-of-the-art processing facility” where Dannon can perform the batching, pasteurizing, fermenting, cool down and packing processes and procedures involved in yogurt making. The plant, which has an Interstate Milk Shippers certificate, will receive milk starting Sept. 2 and begin yogurt processing, Townsend said. Dannon will not be selling any product it makes here, however.

The 40 R&D center employees consist of technicians, product developers, sensory experts and scientists. A separate section of office space is reserved for suppliers who will work on-site with Dannon employees. This arrangement will “accelerate collaboration, spur innovation and ensure integration at every stage of the development process,” according to a press release.

Dannon, with 2010 sales of approximately $1.25 billion, ranks No. 24 on the Dairy 100, Dairy Foods’ annual ranking of North American dairy foods processors.