Sagar.Malviya @timesgroup.com Patanjali Ayurved's sales in volume terms have shrunk in cities, while growth reduced to a third in villages even as the overall market for natural products continues to grow, a new study has found.The Baba Ramdev-led firm's urban volume sales declined 2.7% during the 12 months ended April 2019, while its rural sales grew 15.7%, according to Kantar Worldpanel (formerly IMRB), a global consumer research firm owned by communications and advertising giant WPP. The overall natural products market grew 3.5% in urban India, unchanged from a year-ago period, while the rural market expanded 5% against 4.4% earlier.A year ago, the Haridwar-based company had grown 21.1% in urban areas and 45.2% in the hinterland during the same period."The natural segment is driven not just by core natural brands, but also ones introducing some natural ingredients in their products," said K Ramakrishnan, managing director at Kantar Worldpanel. "It has helped incrementally build the parent brand, which may not be in the natural space at all."The slowdown of Patanjali, which had challenged multinationals' dominance in the consumer segment, comes on the back of rivals rolling out herbal brands over the past two years after witnessing sharp consumer shift towards natural products. "Today, the naturals segment reaches almost all households in India and contributed a quarter of volume sales," Ramakrishnan said. About 60% of all new launches in 2018 were in the natural space, a jump from 49% two years ago, the Kantar r eport said.This directly impacted Patanjali's financials - the company's sales fell 10% to 8,135 crore in the year to March 2018, while it registered sales of 4,701 crore in the first nine months of FY19, according to provisional data by CARE Ratings.Patanjali didn't respond to an email query as of press time on Sunday.Market leader HUL has relaunched the Lever Ayush brand of ayurvedic personal care products, acquired Indulekha haircare brand, and launched Citra skincare brand to spruce up its presence in the naturals space. Similarly, L'Oreal launched a haircare range under the Garnier Ultra Blends, made with natural ingredients, while Colgate launched natural toothpaste brand Vedshakti.In fact, HUL has claimed its natural portfolio has been growing twice the rate compared to the average growth rate of the company. "It is still a small base, but this trend is not going to go away. And our thrust on naturals is not just a fad, it is bound to remain," said Sanjiv Mehta, chairman at HUL that launched several natural variants in brands, including Brooke Bond, Fair and Lovely and Lux, among others.A week ago, Dabur India chairman Amit Burman told ET that it has regained lost market share, with the threat posed by Patanjali having receded. "It (Patanjali's) was a disruptive strategy to kill competition by price, like it happens in many industries . But after the disrupting, things settle down and ultimately product quality and depth of distribution are what matter," he had said.At present, Patanjali has more than 200,000 sales counters and about 100 Patanjali mega stores. In addition, it also has its own online sale portal and more than 1,500 Patanjali chikitsalayas, 5,000 arogya centres and 25,000 swadeshi centres.