Corrugated at a Crossroads: How Packaging and Display Are Being Transformed

At FESPA 2026, Kongsberg's David Preskett discusses how real business needs are shaping the company's product development.

The industry wants speed. Automation. Flexibility. Less waste with more ecological solutions. And according to David Preskett, vice president of APAC and EMEA at Kongsberg PCS, the demands of brand owners and retailers are driving convergence — and divergence — at record speed in the packaging segment.

During his session, “’Voice of the Customer’ Approach Ensures That Real Business Needs Shape Product Development” at the FESPA 2026 expo in Barcelona, Spain, Preskett discussed all of the current customer demands that are shaping today’s workflow. He took two perspectives: one, how brands and retailers are driving print service provider (PSP) business; and two, how PSP demands then shape product development at Kongsberg. He emphasized the need for digital printing and finishing solutions that offer flexibility, shorter run lengths, and reduced waste.

Customer Needs Driving Development

“This is what I hear from packaging and print service providers when they talk to me and our people: ‘I want longer run lengths for digital finishing, but I also want short run lengths,’” Preskett said in the session. “[They] want less waste with more ecological solutions. … They want to be more productive, more automated.”

PSPs’ customers are also demanding high-quality products. All of this, he said, continues to point back to “flexibility, more flexibility, and more flexibility.”

Flexibility has now led to more than speed and quality — the growing convergence into opportunities like signage are also driving corrugated businesses these days, and digital workflows that cross the lines are a must.

“We are seeing convergence of workflows, so corrugated is working for packaging and sign and display,” Preskett explained. “Corrugated users who are packaging are moving into display, and vice versa. And the equipment is the same. Digital print, digital finishing, generally digital printing — it's short run, it's digitized, it's personalized, it is also sustainable.”

With more regulations coming, specifically led by the European market, sustainability is a particular point of attention.

“Fiber-based recyclable board is becoming the media of choice,” Preskett said. “It's relatively easy to print on, so it becomes the media that can be used in both sectors.”

Preskett said that PSPs, driven by brand owners and retailers, are evaluating their current businesses using various questions:

• What's the return on investment for products?
• How do I think about the future?
• Where's my market?
• What does potentially growing business and diversifying look like?

Preskett noted that there is an internal conversation that is happening as well.

“It's about utilizing [their people’s] skills,” he said. “You buy an automation unit, so how else could you better use those people? How do we know what to talk about, and how do we know what to build for the future?”

He offered a few suggestions, including value stream mapping. For PSPs, it’s good business, but for Kongsberg — according to Preskett — it’s all about getting in front of PSPs for conversations.

“We go to see customers, and we ask them lots of questions from the end of their process to the beginning, do it backwards, and we put the customer's customer right at the beginning,” he said. “A [PSP] will print a product and send it, and we work backwards to say where did the order come from, and all those steps in between. We know where your value add is in your business process, and we know where your value loss is as well, and what that tells us is that actually there are different types of people in companies.” That is where the convergence lines start to blur things.

“A business owner might be saying, ‘How do I be more competitive, more environmentally friendly, reduce my cost per piece, keep my people better in place,’” he said. “A production manager might be thinking, ‘How do I shorten the lead time? How do I reduce waste? How do I make my equipment more efficient?’ Whereas a table operator might be thinking, ‘How do I have less interventions and interruptions? How do I make sure I change tools less often?’”

Those conversations help drive product development for the company, and, according to Preskett, helped lead to the Kongsberg Ultimate, a digital cutting table designed specifically for corrugated and display production. It was on display during the FESPA event, and Preskett shared several current user testimonials during the session to showcase the machine.

Preskett wrapped up his session by sharing this thought: “The industry is shifting, corrugated is shifting because of applications coming together and converging. Legislation is coming very soon, … and the diversification is coming from the flexibility of corrugated.” He encouraged PSPs to find the right technology partners to meet their customers’ demands.