We took a pass on it because of the travel and shelf life issues. Ales do a little better than lagers on both, but they don't have the market size, even for a fairly big importer like the one for whom I worked at the time.
Brits in particular are very mouthy about loving their pubs and their ales, but the Japanese (the market we served) don't have much of a taste for room temperature beer.
When I was in college, a corrupt Coors distributor sold my fraternity, I think for like a buck a case, a couple hundred cases that were just outside expiration. This was before Coors was pasteurized. We did a brisk business selling them from my dorm room for $5 per case.