Festival dei Piccoli Bologna: B2B kits for schools, libraries, publishers and sponsors

Merchandising for teams around the Festival dei Piccoli

Programme

Spring education and culture programme distributed across Bologna and province

Venues

District libraries (biblioteche nucleari), civic halls, municipal theatres, primary schools in Bologna and surrounding municipalities

The Festival dei Piccoli is the spring education and culture programme that each year fills schools, libraries and small theatres in Bologna with a calendar of animated readings, art, music and movement workshops, puppet shows, marionette performances and meetings with authors and illustrators designed for children aged three to ten. The programme is distributed across the city's district libraries, civic halls, municipal theatres and primary schools; the audience is largely made of classes accompanied by their teachers and local families, with a smaller cohort of publishers and corporate supporters joining through the sponsorship programme. For education teams, social cooperatives, publishers and sponsors joining the programme, the calendar is dense and the lots are many, so any merch programme has to be split clearly between school kits, family giveaways and sponsor hospitality items.

For education teams, libraries, publishers and sponsors, the merch cycle is coordinated through the publishing house's marketing lead, through the library district office and through the sponsor's institutional-relations lead. Corp-Merch.IT runs the full production cycle from a Milan hub: brief collection, art adaptation, producer qualification on Italian supply chains suitable for the segment (Fabriano and Fedrigoni paper mills, Treviso cardboard converting, Bedizzole recycled plastics, Collodi wood workshops and the Tuscan and Emilian print districts), a physical pre-production sample with a Pantone colour map and a print proof on FSC-certified paper, and a structured proposal within 48 business hours of the kick-off. For programmes that mix class kits, parent giveaways and publisher hospitality, we split the kit into separately labelled lots per recipient, with separate delivery addresses if a Milan-based sponsor wants a share of the kit collected from its own office.

For sponsoring companies with VAT registration, the invoice goes out in EUR at the standard 22% IVA rate, with reduced 4%, 5% and 10% brackets applied where the product category allows (books and printed paper, in particular, fall under reduced rates). The invoice is routed through the Agenzia delle Entrate's Sistema di Interscambio (SdI) to the buyer's codice destinatario or PEC address. For pubblica-amministrazione buyers (Comune di Bologna, libraries, schools), the invoice is processed under split payment and the related CUP/CIG references are attached to the order.

Production and venue logistics toward the libraries

Before production begins, artwork, quantities per age band, packaging and the named on-site recipient must be locked. The exact school or library finalises only against the current district list close to the festival — Bologna state schools and municipal libraries are public spaces and cannot be used as parcel-reception addresses during school hours without notice from the school office. Bologna's ZTL (limited traffic zone) and night traffic restrictions condition courier access in the centro storico, and most teams combine a Stazione-area logistics hub or a sponsor office with a pickup from the venue itself on the morning of the reading. The library district office and the publisher's marketing lead coordinate the loading slot the day before the reading.

For a Bologna programme routed from Milan, deliveries are consolidated at the hub and dispatched to the city with a 24–48 hour window via BRT, SDA, GLS or DHL Express, and on appointment for ZTL venues and school addresses. For programmes above 1,000 pieces we offer appointment delivery with phone pre-notice and, on request, on-site set-up at the venue by our staff. For clients subject to CSRD reporting (D.Lgs. 125/2024, transposing Directive (EU) 2022/2464) we attach a sustainability data sheet per PO with Scope 3 CO₂e estimates per GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain on the Lombardy–Emilia-Romagna lane, including the optional Fabriano–Bologna and Treviso–Bologna production districts.

All Italian B2B orders are invoiced in EUR at the standard 22% IVA rate (with reduced 4%, 5% and 10% rates where applicable by product category) and routed through the Agenzia delle Entrate's Sistema di Interscambio (SdI) to the buyer's codice destinatario or PEC address. Corp-Merch.IT is a registered Italian VAT operator, listed on VIES for intra-EU operations, and handles reverse charge, split payment and pubblica-amministrazione self-invoicing under current Italian rules.

Planning timeline

1. 8–10 weeks out: lock product list, quantities per age band and decoration methods, especially for board books, puppets and FSC-certified kits.
2. 5–6 weeks out: approve a physical or pre-production sample, including safety checks on materials intended for children.
3. 3–4 weeks out: finish production, AQL 2.5 quality control and per-recipient labelling.
4. Final week: reconfirm the delivery calendar for the district libraries, civic halls and any school pickup points.

Certifications, quality and lot traceability

For education teams, libraries, publishers and sponsors presenting a Festival dei Piccoli programme, coherence between visual identity and child-safe raw materials is integral to the offering. We work with Italian producers operating under ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environmental management) and SA8000 or equivalent for social responsibility, and holding the main product certifications required by the segment: OEKO-TEX Standard 100 on skin-contact textiles (organic cotton for T-shirts and tote bags, recycled cotton for backpacks), GOTS on organic cotton, GRS on recycled polyester, FSC on paper and packaging (board books, programmes, labels, boxes, recycled cardboard), EU Ecolabel on a range of textile and stationery items, and EN 71 (toy safety) for puppets, marionettes and small wooden accessories.

For Fabriano and Fedrigoni paper mills the producer can attach the FSC or PEFC chain-of-custody certificate and, on request, a water-based-ink declaration. For Treviso cardboard converting the producer can issue FSC or PEFC chain-of-custody and REACH compliance (Reg. CE 1907/2006) with an updated SVHC declaration, in particular for recycled-cardboard items intended for child use. On the packaging side, paper-product manufacturers offer FSC or PEFC options and, on request, plastic-free with vegetable-based inks.

For clients subject to CSRD reporting (D.Lgs. 125/2024) we integrate into the PO a sustainability data sheet with Scope 3 CO₂e estimate per GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain, broken down by material (organic cotton, recycled cotton, FSC paper, FSC cardboard, wood) and by logistics lane (Fabriano–Milan–Bologna, Treviso–Milan–Bologna, Bedizzole–Milan–Bologna, Collodi–Milan–Bologna), plus ESRS E1 (Climate Change), E5 (Resource Use) and S2 (Workers in the Value Chain) references for the client's sustainability balance sheet. On request we also include packaging-waste reporting submitted to CONAI for post-consumer material traceability.