Vodafone has announced that it will close 40 of its Crazy John’s stores by late February, and rebrand the other 21 as Vodafone stores over the coming months.

The move comes following the company’s decision to shift its focus on improving its poor performing network as it experiences both profit and customer losses.

According to The Australian, Vodafone reported a $131.3 million loss for the half-year to June 30 last year, and it lost 178,000 customers between January and June, 2012. 

In an attempt to improve its reputation with customers, and to focus on its investments a little better, the company has made a number of what it has described as “tough decisions.”

“One of these decisions is to streamline our retail brand offering to one single brand – Vodafone,” said Vodafone spokeswoman, Karina Keisler.

“As a result, we will be closing or rebranding our Crazy John’s stores across Australia.”

While this could mean hundreds of Crazy John’s employees will lose their jobs, Vodafone has said that it will attempt to employ them in other areas of the business, reports The Herald Sun.

The company has said that Crazy John’s customers will be transferred over to the Vodafone network.

“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,” the company said.

Five years ago, Vodafone bought the Crazy Johns brand from Patricia Ilhan, the widow of company founder John Illhan, who passed away unexpectedly in 2007, for $150 million. 

Speaking to The Herald Sun, Stephen Dabkowski, a spokesman for Ms Ilhan, said “Patricia is very disappointed about the decision but it is a matter for Vodafone.”

The company was founded in 1991, and it launched its franchise store program in January 2012.