A pair of friends who dreamt up Marmite-themed board games during drunken dinners together have told how they won £50,000 backing from the Dragons' Den investment show.
Father of two Richard McLuckie, 48, and his friend Stuart Mackenzie-Walker, 51, dreamt up a series of board games including Love It Or Hate It and Who Put The Marmite In The Fridge, over long evenings spent playing games and drinking wine.
They won permission to use the name Marmite from brand owner, Unilever, before going onto Dragons' Den to ask for funding.
But the pair, who have been friends since childhood when they lived across a glen from each other in Argyll, nearly lost their chance when they weren't allowed to mention the name Marmite to the inquisitive Dragons.
Mr McLuckie, a former property developer who lives near Avignon, France, with his French wife, Betty, 43, and their daughters Clara, 15, and Esmee, 13, said: 'Unilever had agreed to the licensing contract but told us we couldn't mention Marmite on the show as they hadn't yet agreed the design of the game.
'They didn't want any mention of it til it was signed off, so we were worried the Dragons wouldn't be interested.'
Three Dragons took their money off the table early, leaving Duncan Bannatyne and Peter Jones demanding to know more.
Mr McLuckie said: 'We told them we couldn't say the name but it was an iconic brand and a well-known supermarket brand.
'Eventually they demanded to see paperwork and when we showed it to them, Peter Jones said "Oh it's Marmite", and they agreed to invest.
Jones and Bannatyne said they would buy a 40 per cent stake in the men's games start-up, Pants On Fire, and the games will go on sale next month.
Love It Or Hate It, the title of which is based on the idea that Marmite provokes strong reactions one way or the other, is a game in which couples and friends can find out how much they know about each other.
The idea for Who Put The Marmite In The Fridge came to Mr McLuckie when he realised that his French wife was putting the Marmite in the fridge, meaning it was unspreadable on his toast every morning.
He said: 'My wife always puts it in the fridge which makes it like concrete, and now my children do the same thing, and every morning I ask the same thing.
'It occurred to me it would be a great name for a board game.'
He and Mr Mackenzie-Walker developed their ideas for games in a series of dinners over the years, but only decided to launch their business in 2009 after the property market crashed and Mr McLuckie needed a new job.
First they came up with Liar Liar, in which players try to persuade their opponents to believe made-up facts, and Eurobabble, a modern version of Chinese Whispers in which players translate from one language to another and another.
In Who Put The Marmite In The Fridge, players have to avoid being left with the jar of Marmite.
I love it!
I love it!
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: I love it!
Personally I'd rather be water-boarded than subjected to eating Marmite again, but I'm a big fan of creative entrepreneurship; good for them... 
