MUMBAI: In a first, Colgate Palmolive’s global CEO Ian Cook named Indian rival Patanjali while talking to investors about the need to respond to changing consumer preferences in India where the toothpaste giant recorded its steepest market share fall in a decade last year.“Patanjali in India takes a very nationalist view of its business,” Cook told investors during an earnings conference call on Friday. “These are concepts in the local market. They tend to be premium price oriented and it means that you have to respond with a very specifically constructed offering that attacks the benefit the consumer is looking for. Hence the natural — the natural reaction,” he said.The acknowledgement comes after Colgate India’s share in the Indian toothpaste market fell by 1.8% last year. The company’s sales volume declined 4% last fiscal, with consumers increasingly shifting to ayurvedic or herbal brands.A Credit Suisse report said Colgate’s actual market share fall would be at least two times of reported share loss because the share of Baba Ramdev-led Patanjali, the main disruptor in the category, is significantly under-reported, because market researcher Nielsen’s retail panel does not track Patanjali’s own stores —there are 12,000 such stores.With a market share of 55.6% in toothpaste and 47.3% in the toothbrush category in 2016, Colgate still remains the country's largest oral care player. But Patanjali has been able to challenge its dominance despite being present in only two lakh traditional retail stores against the US multinational’s access to more than five million stores.In response, Colgate launched its first India-focused ayurvedic brand Cibaca Vedshakti , aimed squarely at Patanjali's Dant Kanti toothpaste, last year. The new brand had 0.5% share across India and 1% share in the north and eastern regions in 2016.“And in the end, the winner over time in these clashes are going to be the companies that best understand the consumer and serve them offerings that they want over time and of course that’s what we all resourced and focused on doing,” Cook said on Friday.The $16-billion multinational has global experience in the natural segment, having acquired Tom’s of Maine, a natural ingredients-only personal care products maker in the US, a decade ago, while Colgate Misvak is present in Turkey, Indonesia and elsewhere.Patanjali’s rise to a Rs 10,000-crore company in less than a decade has made multinational rivals shift focus to the ayurveda sector. Hindustan Unilever has relaunched Ayush brand of ayurvedic personal care products, acquired Indulekha hair care brand and launched Citra skincare brand, while L'Oreal launched a hair care range under Garnier Ultra Blends made with natural ingredients. Dabur launched India's first ayurvedic gel toothpaste under the Dabur Red franchise in an effort to contemporarise ayurveda for the younger generation.Indigenous manufacturers are driving natural personal care market, growing at four times the pace of multinationals.“Consumers are drawn to Indian brands when it comes to naturals, under the assumption that manufacturers of these brands use ‘common kitchen ingredients’, making it safe for consumption and less likely to result in side effects or allergies,” said a recent Nielsen study.In fact, homegrown companies account for nearly 79% to the natural personal care market in the country.Brands using natural ingredients now make up more than one-fifth of the country’s oral-care market.Analysts, meanwhile, said Colgate is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the new goods and services tax (GST), as average indirect tax rate for toothpaste has come down to 18% from about 23-24%.Colgate has already slashed prices of toothpastes and toothbrushes by 7-11%, partly because of the antiprofiteering clause in GST laws.“It levels the playing field for Colgate… providing it a competitive advantage vis-à-vis other key players who enjoy various tax benefits on account of their ayurvedic proposition, as they will be unable to undertake price cuts in similar fashion,” ICICI Securities said in an investor note.During Friday’s analysts call, Colgate also said due to uncertainty about the new law, trade was cautious and shipments basically ground to a halt for the last two weeks of June.