AURORA, CO -- Despite a slowdown in military orders, Advanced Circuits saw revenue grow year-over-year in the first quarter, aided by acquisitions.

The company's purchase of Universal Circuits in May 2012 helped boost sales 12% over the first quarter 2012, said officials at Compass Holdings, Aurora's parent company. Based on past reports, Advanced Circuits' revenues in the March quarter were about $21.7 million.

Demand for the printed circuit board fabricator's quickturn production services remained stable, said lias J. Sabo, a partner at Compass.

The PCB company experienced softness in defense and aeronautical orders during the period, however. "We started experiencing a lot of the talk of the sequester pushing down orders really as early as the third quarter of last year," Sabo said. "There's been no additional stress since the sequester went into effect. But I think what a lot of companies did experience that are doing work in the defense industry was, in anticipation of that, just a real slowdown. And that's kind of just now held steady. But there's been no further degradation since implementation of the sequester."