How John Ilhan’s $300m Crazy John’s empire vanished
It was the mobile phone empire that began in a tiny shopfront and grew into a $300 million business.
Founded by John Ilhan in 1991, Crazy John’s was hailed as Australia’s greatest rags-to-riches success stories.
But the meteoric rise of the man who gave Australia the $1 mobile plan ended in a tragedy that eventually saw the “Crazy” brand vanish forever.
In 2007, Ilhan collapsed and died while on a morning walk in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton. He was just 42 years old.
The loss of the mobile phone mogul marked the beginning of Crazy John’s swift decline.
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Owner and businessman John Ilhan with mascot for his Crazy John’s Telstra MobileNet mobile phone dealerships, outside one of his Melbourne stores in 1998.
The rise of the ‘battler’
The son of Turkish migrants, Ilhan’s journey started in working-class Broadmeadows in Melbourne’s northwest.
In 1991, he quit as a salesman at Strathfield Car Radio and opened his first store in Melbourne’s inner city suburb of Brunswick under the name Mobileworld.
After rebranding to Crazy John’s, the entrepreneur revolutionised the industry with $1 mobile phones, allowing customers to pay back the cost of the handset over a contract rather than upfront.
John Ilhan started Crazy John’s in 1991.
In just 15 years, the business exploded into the country’s largest Telstra reseller, operating more than 100 stores.
By 2003, Ilhan was the richest Australian under 40 with an estimated $300 million fortune.
Sick of Telstra’s “bullying tactics”, the tycoon settled a bitter court battle with the telco giant in 2006 over alleged breaches of contract.
Before his death, Ilhan sealed a deal with Vodafone. He planned to double the size of his distribution network.
Known for working 18-hour days, the mogul had dreams of a Crazy John’s credit card, and expanding into New Zealand and Britain.
“I have this hunger and passion that I want to succeed,” he once said.
“I’m the first one into work and the last one to leave in most cases.”
The brand was known for its $1 mobile phones.
The first Crazy John’s store in Brunswick.
The day the ‘Crazy’ died
Crazy John’s was acquired by Vodafone in 2008 after Ilhan’s widow, Patricia, sold 75 per cent of the business for a reported $150 million.
Under the new ownership, the brand struggled. Vodafone faced its own financial struggle in 2010, losing hundreds of thousands of customers due to network failures.
By 2012, Vodafone was bleeding cash, reporting a $131.3 million loss in the first half of the year.
The team that helped Ilhan build his empire was gutted, with 200 employees made redundant.
Ilhan’s widow, Patricia, sold 75 per cent of the business for a reported $150 million.
Why Crazy John’s vanished
In 2014, Vodafone announced it was shutting down Crazy John’s.
The company’s downfall was fuelled by a saturated smartphone market and a business model that had become a financial liability.
The famous $1 mobile plan, which relied on massive commissions for long-term connections, became unsustainable as the market shifted.
Vodafone, desperate to consolidate its brand, refused to spend millions maintaining a competing name.
About 18 months before the final shutdown, 40 Crazy John’s stores were closed. The remaining 20 were rebranded as Vodafone, ending Ilhan’s business legacy.
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