Beer company Heineken (HKHHY) this week acquired two South African drink sellers worth a total of $4.6 billion — a sign of expansion for the Amsterdam-based brewer despite a steeper than expected decline in global sales last quarter.

The firm saw third quarter misses in markets disrupted by COVID-19 lockdowns, like Vietnam; however, it also experienced relatively strong sales in Mexico and the U.S., Heineken said in an earnings release last month.

In a new interview, Heineken USA CEO Maggie Timoney offered four reasons why the company remains "confident in the outlook" of its U.S. business amid the ongoing pandemic.

In the competitive and reopening U.S. market, those priorities include a focus on customer needs; the gradual return of drinking at locations like restaurants and bars; the reinstatement of in-person work; and a balance between innovation and core business, Timoney said.

"We have to stay ahead of the consumer in the U.S. — all suppliers, number one," Timoney says.

As of 2019, the company controlled about 1.8% of the $112 billion U.S. beer market, The Independent reported.

Next, Timoney emphasized the ongoing return of on-premise alcohol consumption, which refers to drinking at in-person establishments like bars. However, the total number of those locations nationwide declined by about 17%, according to a report from the National Restaurant Association last December.

"Number two, on-premise is opening up, but it hasn't come back, obviously, to where it was because a lot of these businesses could not make it," she adds.

The return of in-person work has also improved performance, Timoney said. In October, the company reopened its U.S. headquarters in White Plains, New York for employees to come in on a voluntary basis.

"I think fostering connections with our own employees — physical connections — is really, really important, so long as you can do it safely."

Finally, Timoney stressed the importance of striking a balance between the introduction of new products and ideas, and the shoring up of core strengths.

"There's a pandemic but you still have a business to run," she says. "So how do you balance the people agenda, your innovation agenda, and your core business agenda while meeting the needs of delivering the revenue and the profits and also meeting the needs of your own employees who want to feel safe?"

"It's a melting pot of putting all those things together," she adds. "You have to do it all."

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