Breakfast Briefing: Retail news on Tesco, J Crew and Apple

Tesco boss Dave Lewis vows to take on discounters on price

Tesco has declared war against the value and discount retailers by promising to cut prices across the retail market, chief executive Dave Lewis told the Daily Mail.

‘The price gap without doubt was too great.’ Lewis said. ‘We aim to be competitive at all ends of the market and that includes the opening price point in every category.’

J Crew-owned Madewell brand comes to UK via Net-a-Porter

J Crew owned denim brand Madewell has launched in the UK via Net-a-Porter.com. The US retailer is a destination for weekend-appropriate basics, shirts and comfortable footwear, covetable cut-offs and dungarees.

Prices in the UK start at £80 for a cotton, crochet-trimmed T-shirt ranging to £130 for a pair of jeans and £250 for a leather rucksack. Ben Matthews, buying manager at Net-a-Porter, describes the brand as ‘the go-to denim heritage brand for chic Coachella goers.’

Apple faces £344m in iTunes patent case

Apple has been ordered to pay $533m (£344m) to Smartflash, a British Virgin Islands-based firm that owns and licenses tech-related patents, because its iTunes Store was found to have been using inventions described in the patent filed in 1999. The row was about the digital rights management, data storage and payments systems technology found in the iTunes Store. The company said that the patent was infringed in Apple applications such as Coin Dozer and 4 Pics 1 Movie.

Costcutter’s media brief goes to Boutique

Costcutter Supermarkets Group has hired integrated media agency Boutique to manage its media strategy and implementation, The Drum reported. The move comes as the convenience retailer embarks on a new operations and marketing model.