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Adrian Hayward and Alex Tofield
Kaipara Flats couple Adrian Hayward and Alex Tofield are bringing their internationally award-winning skills to help businesses in Mahurangi gain exposure.
Adrian grew up in England and started his career in theatre, working as a stage manager, before becoming an assistant director at the BBC, where he worked on The Young Ones and Doctor Who.
He moved to advertising to further hone his skills and worked as a director, producing ads in New Zealand and Australia while based in Sydney. He was twice named Australian Director of the Year and appeared as a guest judge on Australia’s Next Top Model.
Alex was born in New Zealand but grew up in Malaysia and England, as her father was a Major in the British Royal Artillery regiment.
She started working in catering in London, where clients ranged from Prince Charles and Margaret Thatcher, to Stephen Fry and Michael Palin.
She moved to Sydney 20 years ago and worked as a private chef for Australian billionaire Kerry Packer before starting a catering company. Her passion for beautiful food developed into work as a food stylist for TV, magazines and cookbooks.
The couple later combined their talents and started creating culinary-themed content for websites and television – they recently produced food-travel show, Marion’s Thailand, for Food TV.
As the industry has headed online, Adrian has become adept at website development, which has spawned their new business, Tasty Bytes – producing custom websites ranging from small one-page designs for small businesses, through to high-end sites for large companies. They also still specialise in food media.
They started the business after moving to Mahurangi two years ago and have adapted their skills to local needs.
“There’s not a great demand for a company specialising in internationally award-winning food media in Kaipara Flats,” Adrian says.
But, while converting a barn on their property into an office they found it difficult to find local tradespeople online and saw a gap in the market.
“A lot of local business has been through word-of-mouth, but with the level of growth coming to this area it is crucial to have a presence online,” Adrian says. “We want to help local businesses into the digital age.”
Local Matters Business Directory: Tasty Bytes
