Hybrid Thinking: How Kento Digital Is Reimagining Corrugated

This article is inspired by a podcast interview with Javier Quesada of Kento Digital. Please take a listen here.

In the corrugated packaging industry, progress rarely comes from sudden disruption. It comes from engineering, experience, and the practical rethinking of what already works. Javier Quesada, CEO of Kento Digital Printing, represents that shift. Rather than tearing up the rulebook, he is rewriting it - combining the reliability of flexo with the precision and agility of digital to redefine how boxes are produced.

Quesada’s background is not in machinery design, but in corrugated manufacturing itself. For nearly two decades, he worked within major producers such as Saica and DS Smith, managing operations, selling corrugated boxes, and living the commercial realities of a market that prizes reliability as much as innovation. “I spent years in factories producing boxes, so I know the pressures first-hand,” he says. “Now I’m helping those same companies rethink how they make them.”

That dual understanding - commercial pragmatism and technological ambition - has shaped Kento’s mission: to make digital printing work for the corrugated sector, not against it.

A cyclical market under pressure

Corrugated has always mirrored the global economy. When goods move, so do boxes. “After COVID, the market was booming,” says Quesada. “Now we’re in a slower moment.” He cites uncertainty across both Europe and the Americas: inflation, fluctuating tariffs, and mergers among industry giants such as Smurfit WestRock and International Paper’s acquisition of DS Smith, which have temporarily slowed capital investment.

The result is a cautious market. Yet, amid the slowdown, demand for sustainable and flexible packaging continues to grow - driven by e-commerce and the shift from plastic to fibre. It is in this intersection of efficiency, cost, and sustainability that Kento has positioned itself.

Hybrid: innovation by combination

Kento’s answer is not to replace flexo, but to complement it. “We call it innovation by combination,” says Quesada. “We combine flexo, digital, and rotary die-cutting in one pass.” The idea is simple: use digital printing where it adds value - high graphics, variable data, branding - and flexo for large colour blocks where digital would be costly and unnecessary.

In practice, that means a hybrid press capable of printing, die-cutting, and finishing a corrugated box in a single line. It’s the difference between a digital printer and a digital production system - and it directly addresses the three biggest barriers to digital adoption in corrugated: ink cost, CapEx, and in line converting.

“Digital ink is expensive,” Quesada explains. “Our hybrid system reduces ink consumption by using digital only where it matters. Then, we make the machine modular - so customers can start small and scale up as their digital workload grows.” Finally, the inclusion of inline rotary die-cutting means that digital output can be compared directly to analogue lines for the first time. “We’re not replacing,” he stresses. “We’re the perfect companion to analogue.”

A pragmatic sustainability story

Corrugated is already a circular economy success story - paper made from waste, reused and recycled repeatedly. Yet Kento’s hybrid approach strengthens that loop. By reducing ink consumption, shortening setups, and enabling shorter runs, it helps converters reduce waste, energy, and excess stock.

And the company’s next development goes even further. Kento is currently testing its first water-based hybrid machine, combining flexo and digital with high-viscosity aqueous inks that deliver both sustainability and cost efficiency.

Traditional water-based inks are notoriously energy-intensive to dry and can damage corrugated fibres through excess moisture. “We are solving this,” says Quesada. “By using high-viscosity water-based inks, we reduce water content and energy consumption. It dries faster, uses less heat, and gives stronger colour with less distortion.” The first installation is planned for early 2026 in Europe, with commercial availability expected later that year.

Importantly, Kento is pragmatic about ink chemistry. “We give both options - UV or water-based - depending on the customer’s needs. Each market is different.”

The business case for modularity

For many converters, the risk of investing €5–7 million in a single-pass digital line remains prohibitive. Kento’s modular approach challenges that model. Customers can start with an entry-level configuration and expand over time, adding extra flexo colours, or finishing modules as demand grows.

This incremental pathway appeals especially to independent, family-owned corrugated businesses - the very firms that built the industry and now find themselves squeezed between large integrated groups and rising customer expectations. “Innovation will come from independents,” Quesada predicts. “They can’t compete on volume, so they compete on value.”

Kento’s system gives those firms an accessible on-ramp to digital transformation without losing the dependability of their existing analogue infrastructure. It’s a strategic bridge between legacy production and the agile, data-driven workflows of the future.

Conservative industry, steady transformation

By Quesada’s estimate, only around 200 single-pass digital corrugated machines have been installed worldwide in over a decade - a modest figure in a global market worth hundreds of billions. “That tells you something,” he says. “There is interest, but the economics and integration have to make sense.”

Kento’s hybrid model may well be the format that finally unlocks that potential. “We’re not preaching disruption,” he says. “We’re enabling evolution.”

Looking ahead

Quesada sees a market defined less by radical innovation and more by practical adaptation. “This is a conservative industry,” he admits. “But that doesn’t mean it won’t change. It means change must fit the real needs of converters.”

Those needs - efficiency, flexibility, sustainability, and lower energy costs - are converging with technological maturity. Hybrid systems, modular upgrades, and flexible ink options are giving corrugated producers the confidence to explore digital at their own pace.

And while the industry’s global giants may move cautiously, smaller independents are seizing the opportunity to differentiate through design, speed, and service. As Quesada puts it: “Understanding the industry is everything. That’s why our team comes from corrugated, not just print. We know what our customers need - and we build technology around that.”

Conclusion: evolution over disruption

In an era of uncertainty, the smartest innovations are those that fit reality. Kento Digital is not trying to overturn the corrugated industry. It is giving it the tools to adapt - combining what works with what’s next.

Hybrid may not be a buzzword, but it might just be the shape of the next decade in corrugated - faster, leaner, more sustainable, and, crucially, achievable.