M Nairn & Co, office 1903 - lino , linoleum, floor-cloths, power looms,, Canal St, Manchester, Gay Village, Lancashire, England, UK, M1 3HN

M Nairn & Co Ltd were the firm of Michael Nairn, specialising in floor-cloths, power looms and linoleum. And according to that excellent site Grace's Guide to British Industrial History "at the 1862 Exhibition in London and the 1867 Paris Exhibition Nairns Floorcloth came into its own and won the prizes. In 1870 Nairn and Co built a six-storey factory in Kirkcaldy and by 1877 with the introduction of linoleum, Kirkcaldy soon became the largest producer of the new floorcovering in the world. In the 1920s the family joined forces with a supplier in Erie, Pennsylvania, which manufactured a three-foot wide simulated wood grain product used to border area rugs and linoleum. This product was known as "Congoleum", because the asphalt materials used to make it came from the Belgian Congo in Africa. The new company called itself Congoleum-Nairn. Congoleum-Nairn continued to sell "Congoleum Gold Seal Rugs" and "Nairn linoleum" through the late 1930's, until its researchers started experimenting with a new material called vinyl. However, further research into developing vinyl flooring was interrupted when World War II began. Following the war, the company continued to grow in the rapidly expanding housing market of that period. 2008 Forbo-Nairn is now the UK's only linoleum manufacturer. Forbo-Nairn have their own website."