United Dairy Farmers, the largest dairy business in Northern Ireland has established a new Group Technical Centre of Excellence at its Dale Farm site in Ballymena.  Competition in the dairy/food product markets is intense and dairy farmers and processors are looking to added value products, improvements in product quality and reduction in costs to succeed. The Group Technical Centre has accelerated existing product and process development work, enhancing laboratory services and exploring new areas of research to develop innovative and added value dairy products for ultimate production in the United Group`s five manufacturing facilities.