IT SEEMS that even before Carl Capozzi and his vanguard team from California set foot in their new Clifton Moor office straight from the plane, Asda headquarters in Leeds was told: The Yanks are coming.

Mr Capozzi is an operations manager for the mighty Washington Inventory Service, which counts among its US retail clients one of the biggest corporate giants on earth, namely Wal-Mart, new owners of Asda.

His organisation is the fourth American company in a month to announce York as a new centre of overseas operations and with 26 varying US firms now "over here" the notion of Old York substituting for a kind of New York has reached a quantum mass with seemingly unstoppable momentum.

The breathless informant of Mr Capozzi's arrival in York, he says, was no less than one of the British inventory companies serving Asda and it brings a wry smile to his face because even though this is his first visit to England, he is clearly being taken seriously at the outset.

And so his rivals should. Mr Capozzi, with the backing of his $200 million turnover venture, clearly means business. He was advertising for staff even before the York Inward Investment Board had found him these offices in Tower Court, which now has so many American firms they might be considering ceding it as the 51st state of the Union.

No messing: He wants 40 people good at maths to kick off with and ready for action by the end of May "and within a short time we should employ at least 70," he predicts.

By the first day he and his band of jetlagged helpers from San Diego were already sifting and even interviewing, as well as setting up training schedules and taking delivery of some of the strange inventory machinery.

They may look like hospital defibrillators but they are capable of helping to produce fast results. "What takes some companies three to four weeks to achieve themselves we can do in six to eight hours," he says. with a happy smile, as we settle into a conference room in Tower Court away from the bustle.

In the corner is videoconferencing machinery. "That's one of the reasons we accepted this place when we were told about it on the phone. Sure, there was an element of trust but we'd done our homework on York and we knew it was a good place to be. Among our 5,000 full and part time employees we have quite a few British working for us."

Through his embassy he was passed on to Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency which funnelled help to the York Inward Investment Board and it seems to be everything they said it would be..

"Everyone has been just phenomenal. The people are so nice, the city so pleasant and full of history, but what I see so far is that it has English quaintness yet all the luxuries we are used to in America."

And yes, the number of other US firms in York had a lot to do with their decision to set up a European base in the city. "With so much US presence we knew this was no shot in the dark. It was a calculated move, particularly with the prospect of employing people of the right calibre. We are more than pleased with the results so far. We know that we have made the right decision."

And there were rich pickings. York itself was a "retail heaven" and many US-based retail chains had opened stores such as Staples, Toys-R-Us and Gap which needed asset inventories or warehouse stocktakings.

"I have not seen anything so far that we feel we can't take care of, except driving on the wrong side of the road."

But having established what he needs to be over here in three months' time, he'll be returning over there - "handing over the keys to UK people, UK staff" and heading back to his wife and two stepsons at his home in Corona, 100 miles south of San Diego. "I have an office there," he says.

Invasion force

Three other US firms have just set up bases in York with the help and advice of the York Inward Investment Board.

Last month global payment card processors Total Systems Services (TSYS) of Columbia, Georgia, announced it had bought the multi-million pound four-storey headquarters of the Shepherd Building Group at Fulford House, York for a UK base, with the prospect of an immediate 55 jobs.

And two new American neighbours of Washington Inventory Service are in Tower Court, Oakdale Road, Clifton Moor.

One is Illinois-based paint company Williams Hayward Protective Coatings, a supplier to Thrall Europa, the US wagonmakers in Holgate Road, York led by former Thrall director Bob Brandon. He ultimately hopes to set up a factory in York, manufacturing WHPC's environmentally-friendly paint.

The other - whose four-person team is soon to move to larger premises in the Crown Forge, Haxby - is Autopatch, a subsidiary of XN Technology in Washington State which is setting up a European base for its hi-tech audio visual components.