 Whereas Martin had created a national roadstone group, Pountain was to create the country's largest housebuilder.By the end of the 1980s, British housebuilding was accounting for half of group profits but it was not the only activity to have been expanded.An alternative profits centre had been built up in the United States, starting in 1984, with the staged acquisition of Lone Star Industries; by the end of the decade Tarmac was operating across seven states in the United States.