And I think that’s very unique relative to who we are as Graphic Packaging. Let me touch on for a moment some of the things that we did touch on last night, Mike touched on it, Augusta. We’re very pleased that we’re entering into an agreement with Clearwater Paper for them to acquire our Augusta bleached paperboard facility. It’s a facility, as you know, about 600,000 tons of capacity as Clearwater Paper indicated. It’s operating today at roughly 70% to 80% of that. The acquired EBITDA, about $100 million. We’ll work through all the regulatory environments over the next few months and would expect to close the transaction in the second quarter. Importantly, on a pro forma basis, and this is as important as you’re thinking about what we’re about to share in our financial model.
Post the Augusta sale, that’s kind of the company that we are, roughly $8.8 billion, EBITDA in the $1.8 billion range plus or minus, margins in the 20%. That’s the business we’re going to build from here. So we’ll kind of start there, great balance sheet, 2.6x levered, this assumes we take the cash provided from the divestiture and put it against debt. And that’s the business upon which we’ll grow, and I’ll share those financial metrics with you in just a moment, but it’s important. Very important inside of that pro forma, probably the last time I’m going to use the word integration with you ever because this is a 90% integrated business, and 95% of our sales will be products that you, as a consumer, interact with. A 6-pack, a 12-pack, a cup, a bowl of canister.
It’s the products that we utilize, 95% of the company post the Augusta transaction. Let me touch briefly on the results. You’ve seen them. I won’t overdo this. Yes, it had all the challenges of a year, all the things we saw, destocking and all the activities, 3 quarters of down volume growth quarters 2 through 4, but the business performed at exceptionally high level during that period of time. We’re working with our customers to get paid for the value that we create for them. Margins increased 300 basis points. And as Mike mentioned, we’re off to a good start this year, and it’s important because pivoting to — back to organic sales growth in 2024, which we’re confident we will do, is important for us because that’s how we’ll earn on the model that we’ll talk about here in a moment.
But the innovation pipeline is working. $200 million of sales last year, high confidence in the next $200 million this year and beyond. And we’re off to a good start, year is off to a good start, as Mike mentioned earlier, a little flattish right now. That’s good. Because last year, in the first quarter, we were actually up modestly. And most of the headwinds that we felt through destocking, inventory management and the like, occurred in quarters 2 through 4, which gives us confidence that we’ll return to organic growth as we pivot and take advantage of the innovation pipeline as well as return to more normalized inventory management at our customers’ levels and at the consumer level. You’ve seen the numbers. You’ve seen the financials. I won’t overdo these.
At the end of the day, top line for the business, relatively neutral significant execution on getting paid for the value that we create for our customers. Volumetric growth down a few hundred basis points. 20% EBITDA margins, those are margins that we aspired to several years ago and we got to. And so we’re going to talk about how that pivot creates opportunity for us to grow EBITDA from here going forward. Balance sheet is in a good spot, at 2.8x levered, and margins, very, very strong coming out of the year. So execution worked, and it worked in an environment where we were very actively matching supply and demand. So if you stand back from it, we ran our manufacturing facilities to match the demand of our customers. And that demand, in some case, was down.
And so we match that supply and demand. And when we did it, we were able to do it cost effectively, wisely and still generate 20% EBITDA margins. And it’s a testament to the resiliency of the model, the nature of how we’re working our business every day. Let me touch on guidance. We’ve provided guidance, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EPS, $1.75 billion to $1.95 billion on the adjusted EBITDA. All of this, of course, assumes currently the Augusta being a part of the portfolio. And so of course, down the road, we’ll adjust that for you and lay that out depending upon the timing of the close. Adjusted EPS in the $2.50 to $3 range. We provided the normal — some additional modeling stats for you. It’s there. I want you to have that in hand. One of the things that we’ll talk about here in a moment, and I’ll just point to it, this is peak CapEx for Graphic Packaging.
This is absolutely peak CapEx for Graphic Packaging. It will be driven down from here, and we’ll talk a little bit about that in a moment. Just briefly on Q1, we’re obviously actively continuing to manage and balance supply and demand. And kind of look through the first quarter, the open market paperboard sales that we have today will be down on a year-over-year basis, probably $60 million, $70 million or so. We’re managing and balancing inventory quite wisely here in the first quarter through that. As such, EBITDA in Q1 relative to last year, probably down $35 million, $45 million and that’s going to be very consistent with the guidance that we’re providing for you today. So just to give you a sense for kind of where Q1 is landing. And we feel very good about that.
We’d like the start that we’re off to with our consumer packaging volumes returning to more normalized levels, and that kind of sets the stage for the year that we’re looking forward to have. So let me drill a little deeper on the results side. As Mike said, and he said it extremely well, results are actually quite wide. This is about our people, our capabilities, who we are as a company, the impact we’re having on society, the impact we’re having on our customers. And then, of course, underneath that are the financial results that come along with that. And you heard us talk a lot about the portfolio that we have now moving with the consumer. It’s critical. Moving with the consumer is an imperative for us, and we have the portfolio to do so.
And that’s vital for us as we look forward because we’ve got this great balance of consumer staples products. We’re in your life every day, eating, drinking, enjoying the home, life that you have, being on the go, we’re in your life on a staples basis, on a day-to-day consumption basis, which gives us incredible stickiness on the volumes and the capabilities of the business. And so let me drill down a little bit here for you with something new. A lot of arrows here. What you’re going to hear us talk a very different language as we kind of move forward with our business. We’re going to be talking to you about how are things going in the food market? What’s happening there? What’s happening with beverage? What’s going on with the consumer on foodservice?
What’s happening with our household business? And so this is going to be a new disclosure. It’s going to be a new conversation for us with you, which is what’s going on here inside of these markets? And let me give you a couple of examples. 2022, talked a fair amount about it. All the arrows are up. By the way, up is greater than 5% growth of sales, sideways 2% to 5%, sideways this way or up this way 2% to 5%, diagonal, plus or minus 2%, the opposite direction on the red, pretty straightforward. 2022, beverage was up over 2% to 5%. That was the year that we just talked about. It was the realities of COVID. It was the realities of supply chain challenges, inflation, price needing to move up to deal with the realities of inflation, some of the onboarding of folks buying more than they necessarily needed.
So every arrow there is just up. But in 2023, there’s a little bit more of a normalization, it’s our ability to articulate to you as an investor, what’s happening in this business? Talk about food for a moment. First part of 2023, pretty solid. Volumes are hanging in there. And then we kind of went through the destocking, and it showed up. It showed up because volumes came down quarters 2 through 4, more than offset the pricing that we were working through with our customers. And you saw some downs for the year, relatively flat, pretty good outcome, actually, given everything that we work through on food. Beverage, it’s a great business. It’s a business that continues to grow, grow globally, all the innovation activities that we talked about and really throughout this growth up, but a little neutral in ’23, pretty well chronicled actually in terms of what was going on with at-home consumption, which is where we play in beverage.
And so yes, pretty neutral. Foodservice, it’s a franchise. It’s a phenomenal business. It’s on-the-go consumption. It’s innovation. It’s our cups. It’s you driving through the drive-thru. Up consistently, and up again here in the first quarter of 2024. Household, think about that, things like laundry detergent. Think about filter frames, think about pet food. We don’t put pet food in the food. We put it down in household. Everybody bought a pet in the 2022 time frame, we didn’t fall out of level of our pets, but we didn’t buy as many treats. And so we actually saw a little bit of activity on our household business. And so a little bit less growth. Okay, got it. It’s kind of played itself out to withdraw, but we want to call those things out for you to articulate what are we seeing and what are we doing about movement in those categories?
