Yes but
SEO is just part of the story.
Ranking highly in the search engines is one thing, but getting customers to click through is another. In my opinion, something like eCoffee.co.uk for a coffee retailer site is better than coffee.org.uk , even for the UK market. I would say, from a
SEO point of view go for the .org.uk - but interms of building a business, a short brandable memorable .com or .co.uk should not be ruled out.