LLR's Maxwell Systems fights construction squeeze

Maxwell Systems Inc. CEO Jim Flynn sells software to construction contractors, who are having a rough winter.
 "A year and a half ago, (builders) had more work than they could handle. They could price things at high profit margins. So managing your cost wasn't critical," he says.
  "All of a sudden, it's a much more competitive work place. You have debt burdens and crews to manage. You have to bid closer and closer to cost. You have to measure those costs and handle change orders. Or else it's a formula for going out of business."
  Flynn hopes that stimulates demand for the accounting systems Maxwell developed under founder Bill Maxwell, as well as the estimating software it's acquired since it was sold, by NewSpring Capital's Mike DiPiano, Wynnefield Capital and other local investors, to managers and Ira Lubert's LLR Partners, in February 2006.
  "As a single private equity backer, LLR was willing to be aggressive and enable us to deploy our capital" in acquisitions and expansion, said Flynn. "In 2005, our growth rate was over 50 percent. Last year, it was over 60 percent." He won't release financial information.
  The company employs 265 in King of Prussia and at branch offices in Sarasota, Fla.; Santa Cruz, Calif.; suburban Baltimore; and suburban Denver.