Who won The Apprentice 2025? Lord Sugar makes huge decision after 'rocky moments'

His journey on was far from smooth - but despite gaffes and tears behind the scenes, Dean Franklin kept his cool and has been crowned the winner of BBC's The Apprentice 2025.

After 12 weeks of the competition on screen, opted to invest in Dean’s air conditioning business as he beat Anisa Khan in the final. The result may have surprised some viewers as in the semi final interview stage . He claimed that everyone needs air conditioning "now more than ever, especially with the increase in climate control” instead of climate change and later called it the climate zone.

But Lord Sugar was not put off by these mistakes and Dean’s company already makes a substantial profit from its Essex base which they hope they can upscale to make millions. Lord Sugar, who was chasing between Dean’s firm and Anisa’s pizza business, ended the show by saying: “This is the way I see it. Dean, through the process you’ve been quite good.

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"There've been a few rocky moments where you remained in it by the skin of your teeth, but do I have the confidence in the residential market? As opposed to food where everyone’s got to eat, and a £10, £12 pizza is affordable to most people. That’s where I am at the moment. Given it deep consideration. I’m going to say that, Dean you’re going to be my business partner.”

Dean, 35, from Essex told the of his delight at winning the show and also the toll it took on him. He has been married to wife Chloe, 33, for over three years and they have two children Ted, nine, and Bonnie, seven. But he could only speak to them once a week during filming and he struggled to cope at times.

He explained: “There were all these new emotions I didn't know I had. I mean, it was so hard. I've never been away from my wife and kids for longer than a couple of days before, and when I first signed up to the process, I thought, You know what this, this might be a nice little break, you know, nice little break away from work, away from the family, signed me up, but then it hit me like a ton of bricks, that was not the reality of it.

“We was away for two and a half months. And yeah, you get one phone call home every every week for 10 minutes, and that's all you get. And the 10 minutes goes really quick, especially when you're both crying on the phone to each other.

“I missed my son's birthday. I missed my wife's birthday. I missed one of my good mates mum's funeral. I missed a lot. But to come out on the other side as the winner. I mean, it's just all worth it in the end.”

His kids only found out he won by watching the show’s final on TV and it is now he thinks winning will finally sinks in. "I think that's when we can all celebrate together, because my kids don't know yet, right? So they're still in the dark, and I want to see their reaction. I want to be with them, you know, when I get the ‘you're hired’, I want to be there with them and live in the moment.”

On setting up his business in 2000, he added: “We've not had it easy. You know, there's been times where we have struggled, and I think a lot of people can relate to that. You know, we've always worked. And I think starting the business was a massive risk that I took in a very scary time. You know, during the pandemic, people were losing jobs. People were working from home. There was a lot of crazy stuff going on, a lot of changes, and no one could sort of predict the future. And for me to then risk it all and quit a very, very good paying job and just go from go for it as such, and start my own thing was a very, very scary time.

“Now it comes to a point where the business is sort of bursting at the seams, as I said in the show, I do need a bit of help and guidance on how I can take it to the next level and what I can do, and Lord Sugar is the perfect man for that.” Dean and his family are not the only ones who will benefit from his win and Lord Sugar’s £250,000 cash injection and advice.

Dean’s air conditioning company is jointly owned by himself and close pal Alex Scott. He kept the firm going whilst Dean entered the series and now as payback he will equally benefit from Lord Sugar’s £250k investment. It means Dean - and Alex - are set to become millionaires in the next few years.

Laughing Dean said: “Alex has won the Apprentice! He is over the moon with it. You know, it's a massive opportunity for him. He's reaping the benefits from it, and he ain't even been on the show. So it was a win-win for Alex.”

On a more serious note, he added: “I started this company with him, and I'm going to finish it with him, we're going to do this all together. And I think you need someone who you can trust in business, and Alex is that person.

“I think he's always supported me. He's always pushed me to do more things. And he had to then run the business whilst I was away on The Apprentice, which he obviously struggled with, because it was a lot. He wasn't only dealing with his phone. He's dealing with my phone because I left him it and he's dealing with a lot. And it was a summer as well, so that didn't help!”

The partnership was mentioned briefly in the semi finals when it was explained Lord Sugar would get Dean and Alex’s wives’ stake in their company, and they would both keep their stakes and director roles.

Since the filming of The Apprentice last year, they have already taken on new staff and have an office, something viewers saw Dean request in the final. And business is booming so they are close to outgrowing it.

Dean said: “There is a lot to do, and our roles are going to change, because we both used to be on the tools, we're both now off the tools. We've got engineers out doing the fitting, and we're out doing the quotes and running the operation really.

“I've currently got a hub and an office so but believe it or not, I think we have, we've outgrown this already, and we're going to be looking at somewhere else very soon.

“I don't think we'll be millionaires soon, but we will hopefully be turning over some big figures and earning a good, a good profit. Yeah, that's the goal.”

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