Tarmac Group 1964, now group managing director, Martin acquired key quarrying assets, including Cliffe Hill Granite, Rowley Regis Granite and Hillhead Hughes. In 1968, Martin engineered the three way merger between Tarmac, Derbyshire Stone and the Scottish Asphalt company, William Briggs, creating the country's "largest roadstone and construction group". The group was briefly known as Tarmac Derby but the Derby name was later dropped. Further acquisitions were to come. Permanite, Britain's biggest roofing felt manufacturer, and Limmer, a quoted asphalt company, were bought in 1971, while the 1973 purchase of Mitchell Construction (which had foundered on the Kariba Dam) strengthened the construction
The Bobby Fuller Four showed particular interest in the group. While he saw potential, he didn't think the band had hit material yet. Fuller and his band returned to El Paso and continued to release regional hits, the most popular being "I Fought the Law," originally by the Crickets. By the end of 1964, Fuller saw branching out to a major label as their only option, thus Bobby Fuller, Randy Fuller, and Jim Reese prepared to move to California to revisit Del-Fi Records. Current drummer Dalton Powell could not make the move due to family commitments, and was replaced by another drummer, DeWayne Quirico,