Officina del Legno Calmo is a Bari furniture workshop making repairable stools, shelves, and café tables. Owner Matteo De Santis took the Buy Small pledge after realizing that many of the workshop’s standard orders went to large catalog suppliers, even when nearby independent makers offered suitable alternatives. He and his two-person purchasing team reviewed recurring expenses and added a quarterly check of how much supplier spending reached independent businesses. They now request quotations from local metalworkers, finish makers, and packaging firms when a new job allows for it, while retaining existing suppliers where specifications or capacity require. The pledge set a concrete floor of 20 percent rather than an open-ended aspiration. In its first two quarters, the workshop spent €12,600 with independent suppliers, equal to 22 percent of its €57,300 supplier budget. One local metalworker is now a regular partner on table bases. Matteo says the process has widened the workshop’s choices without turning purchasing into a slogan or compromising delivery commitments.
