By Aimee Chanthadavong
Vodafone Australia has confirmed it plans to ditch the Crazy John’s brand.
It’s expected approximately 60 Crazy John’s stores will either be closed or rebranded to the Vodafone Australia brand across the country by 20 February.
“Some of our Crazy John's locations will close, while others will be transformed into Vodafone branded stores over the coming months,” Karina Keisler, Vodafone Australia, general manager corporate affairs, told RetailBiz.
According to Keilser, Vodafone Australia is looking to improve its network and in order to do that it needs to streamline its retail brand to one single brand – Vodafone.
“We are continuing to focus our investments on our network to provide customers with better mobile coverage and fewer dropped calls. By prioritising our spend to improve the network, we've had to make some tough decisions,” she said.
Vodafone was unable to confirm how many staff would be affected but according to the Crazy John’s website, it employs 400 people nationwide.
“During this transition period we are committed to ensuring a smooth transition for our customers and will do our best to redeploy as many Crazy John's retail employees as possible to work in one of our many Vodafone stores,” Keilser said.
“It wasn't an easy decision to make but it is necessary to remain competitive and to ensure we focus our investment where our customers and people will benefit most.”
Vodafone Australia bought a 75 per cent share of the company in 2008, a year after the death of Crazy John’s founder John Ilhan.