[2] Dulcote was not the best location and, with an eye to rising costs, competition and the need for future expansion, John Yeoman bought the under-exploited Merehead Quarry at East Cranmore in Somerset in 1958.

Significant development of the site was undertaken; at John Yeoman's behest, the branch line between Merehead and Westbury was re-opened to permit trains to serve the quarry.

[4] The use of rail transport to deliver materials proved to be effective, permitting annual production to be raised as high as five million tonnes during the early 1970s.

[4][8] Foster Yeoman was responsible for the supply of aggregate in the construction of multiple landmark civil engineering schemes, including the Thames Barrier, M25 motorway and the Channel Tunnel.

[11] Continuation of waterborne transport of aggregates on the Thames Tideway was also ensured by the acquisition of Bennetts Barges, which also carried major components of the London Eye and a decommissioned Concorde aircraft.

[4] John Yeoman had long been captivated by the idea of the super-quarry to be situated in a remote location from which stone could be exported by sea, which had also been declared as preferred government policy.

To this end, and always looking ahead, he bought the Glensanda estate near Oban in Argyll in 1982, which was projected to be capable of producing up to 15 million tonnes of granite per year.

[4] A pilot plant was installed (extended in 1996) which extracts granite by the "glory hole" and conveyor belt method, a pioneering development in alternative quarrying technology.

[4] During the early 1990s, Foster Yeoman took delivery of three large self-discharging ships with a combined annual carrying capacity of 8 million tonnes for exporting material from Glensanda in bulk to destinations as far away as North America.

[4] The company purchased its own fleet of 140 12-ton wagons in 1923 to take advantage of the fact that the Great Western Railway line ran adjacent to Dulcote Quarry.

[21][22] What may in retrospect be viewed as the harbinger of private rail operation in Britain occurred in 1985 when Foster Yeoman opted to purchase a number of powerful freight locomotives from the American conglomerate General Motors' Electro-Motive Diesel division (GM-EMD), designated Class 59.