Each month, OPEESA members get access to an updated economic outlook from ITR Economics through the ITR Economic Portal — one of the quieter benefits of membership, and one of the most useful for anyone trying to plan inventory and staffing more than a quarter out.
Unlike a general business-news forecast, ITR’s outlook is built specifically to help distributors and manufacturers see turning points coming — the moments when growth accelerates, plateaus, or contracts — rather than just reporting where the economy stands today. For an OPE distributor, that’s the difference between ordering inventory reactively and building a plan around where demand is actually headed.
Members who use the portal regularly describe a few common patterns in how they apply it: cross-checking ITR’s outlook against their own sales trends before finalizing next year’s inventory commitments, using the multi-year view to time hiring and facility decisions rather than reacting to a single strong or weak quarter, and sharing the monthly update with ownership or their board as an outside, non-biased reference point when making the case for a bigger (or more cautious) buy.
The portal’s archive goes back several months, so it’s also useful for members who want to see how a given call has held up over time, not just the latest snapshot.
OPEESA members can access the current ITR Economic Update, along with the recent-issues archive, through the Industry Reports & Benchmarking page after signing in. Members without login access yet can request it, or reach out to the OPEESA office directly with questions about what the current outlook means for their specific market.
