Economy of scale I guess.

I believe Cankon have UK repair centres, but they also have a much larger customer base, and in the case of Canon, a wider range of products to support.

I suppose we are rather spoilt in this country, knowing that most things can be bought/replaced next day, which is not always the case in some mainland European countries.

For once the Portuguese have an advantage over us, but at least there is no chance that your newly repaired Olympus will get overheated on top of an old gas fire that has just come in for service.