LONDON, United Kingdom — French Connection Group's cost-cutting drive helped reduce losses slightly in the first half of 2018 and put it on track to turn profitable by the end of the year, interim results from the British fashion retailer showed on Thursday.

The owner of French Connection, Great Plains and YMC brands reported an underlying pretax operating loss of 5.5 million pounds ($7.2 million) for the six months ended July 31, down from 5.9 million pounds a year earlier.

By Shashwat Awasthi