Linoleum baron. Nairn developed his father's floor-cloth business in Kirkcaldy to manufacture linoleum. This was a floor-covering composed a mixture of linseed oil and ground cork, pressed onto a jute backing. Linoleum proved both popular and hard-wearing, making Nairn a wealthy man. The company grew to become the principal industry in Kirkcaldy and expanded into the USA in the 1880s. Linoleum continued to be popular internationally into the mid-20th C. until replaced by plastics (primarily vinyl). However, in recent years it has increased in popularity once again for high-quality applications and is still manufactured in Kirkcaldy.
Nairn bought the Dysart Estate to the northeast of Kirkcaldy in 1896 and gifted parts of it, for example Ravenscraig Park, to that town.
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