FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FRAMEMAX RECEIVES $3.5 MILLION VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTMENT TO ACCELERATE GROWTH OF INNOVATIVE CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY

April 4, 2003 - Riverside, CA - FRAMEMAX, Inc., the developer of an innovative technology for steel frame construction, announced today that it has received a $3.5 million investment from H.I.G. Ventures, a Miami based private equity firm.

Many homebuilders prefer the advantages that steel frame construction offers over the more widely used wood frame construction but have been slow to adopt its use due to the higher overall cost. FRAMEMAX's patented steel framing process is fully integrated and uses patented software and roll-forming equipment to fully automate the steel framing process, thereby, significantly reducing the overall labor cost associated with current practices. FRAMEMAX is able to offer the homebuilder the advantages of steel, but at a price competitive with wood.

In announcing the transaction, Phil Ellis, FRAMEMAX's President and CEO, said, "We are very excited to partner with H.I.G. Ventures to facilitate the rapid growth of our business. With the added financial and strategic support of H.I.G., we will be able to execute on the tremendous backlog that has been building over the past 12 months."

Craig Burson, Managing Director of H.I.G. Ventures, stated: "FRAMEMAX is a terrific business with tremendous growth opportunities, great technology and a great team. FRAMEMAX is in the enviable position of having more business than it can handle and this new capital will allow them to fully execute on the opportunities at hand."

About H.I.G. Ventures
H.I.G. Ventures is one of the largest and most successful venture capital firms in the Southeast United States. H.I.G. is dedicated to helping talented entrepreneurs build market-leading businesses. H.I.G.'s investment activity is focused on early and growth stage technology companies. Its most recent venture capital fund has total equity capital of over $250 million. In addition, its affiliate, H.I.G. Capital, manages more than $1 billion of equity capital dedicated to investments in private equity and management buyouts. H.I.G. currently has investments in more than 60 companies with annual revenues exceeding $5 Billion.