In February of 1949, Lester Feist and his wife, Irene Feist, founded Ark Valley Distributing as the exclusive Anheuser-Busch distributor for Cowley, Sumner, Harper, and Barber counties. They began the business out of their garage but quickly moved to a building on Madison Street in Arkansas City, KS. Their products included Budweiser, Michelob, and Country Club beer.

In 1951, Ark Valley Distributing purchased a refinery building and added a walk-in cooler at 1003 West Madison. He chose this location for its proximity to rail cars, a requirement by Anheuser-Busch to ensure the freshest products. In 1971, major renovations to the warehouse were made, tripling its size. The building is still in use today, operating as Waldeck Fertilizer. After Lester passed away in 1969, Irene continued to run the business successfully. Irene retired in 1982.

In 1973, Irene sold the business to her daughter and son-in-law, Mike and Patti Morgan. Mike, a Vietnam veteran and Arkansas City graduate became the President. Patti Morgan, an environmental chemist for Total Refineries served as the treasurer. They incorporated the company in 1976. In 1981, they built a new state-of-the-art warehouse at 7748 2nd Avenue in Strother Field Industrial Park, located between Arkansas City and Winfield.

With Mike and Patti running the show, Ark Valley Distributing reached new heights with the success of Budweiser, Bud Light, Busch, Busch Light, and Natural Light. In the 1990s the market share was believed to be 85%. They were able to achieve this success by providing excellent products and even better service.
In 2012, Lester’s grandson, Michael Morgan became the EAM for Ark Valley Distributing. Mike and Patti are still involved with day-to-day operations as Vice-President and Treasurer. In 2014, we installed a 52kw rooftop solar installation. In 2016 we doubled the size of CEW to allow for the rapid expansion of brands and packages that was happening in the beer business. Today, we sell 58 brands with over 350 SKUs. These include beer, sparkling water, canned cocktails, energy drinks, hydration drinks, and bottled water. We also employ 13 people from Cowley and Sumner counties and are proud to be Cowley County's only beer distributor.