Yes Anthony COST is the issue here I feel.
Quality casework here in the UK around £300-400 for that alone if you purchase 12+ complete units ( I am talking quality casework and finishing here)
You could manage around 85% of all British but there would be a cost premium without question, PLUS true audiophile products are for the few and far between, the vast majority of audio products are sold in John Lewis etc.
The audiophile is a dead duck for true business, just not enough of it without question, HOWEVER the lifestyle, Essex bling, overseas middle east, eastern Asia and Russian customers then (just to stick in Napoleon's claw) these will spend serious £$$$ on looks and impressing their oligarch friends one afternoon after flying in on personal Lear jets from an afternoon of racing around their private tracks in France.
This is not the late 80's or 90's anymore people buying habits, products have moved on from the multi box monsters of big hair 80's, gone are the racks of green lit equipment, now its slick, good looking all in one box solutions for the greater masses.
You guys are some of the last of the tinkers as these buyers from the previous era's have retired no longer have the disposable income or have sadly passed away, true their are a few, but these numbers are reducing.
Its the law of economics, their is good talent here in the UK home grown as well, but its pretty much financial suicide to open up a new manufacturer just to produce audiophile goods. Unless you go Kicker starter or have very wealth friends who need to 'loose' funds on a regular basis.
Look at Meridian if the owner was not married to a US multi millionaire's daughter who is very big in the film industry do you really feel they could keep going with 'x' losses?
Manageability and market research is the key imho