I'm using Cone inks and I live in Australia. I don't think that a local distributor makes a lot of difference, The time difference is more of an issue from here than the UK. The Cone people are very good at supporting their product via their tech support forum.
Initially, I emailed Jon Cone and asked him for people in Australia using his inks. It's not a long list but the contact that I made that way has been enormously helpful.
The Cone inks are not cheap, it's quite a learning curve, but the results are worth the effort.
Cheers,
Jeff