SJS Enterprises to localise auto display production, targets growing ₹4,000 crore market

Bengaluru-based automotive aesthetics product maker, SJS Enterprises, plans to become a key player in India’s automotive display market, where nearly all units—around 99.5%—are currently imported.

Group CEO and Executive Director Sanjay Thapar said that the company aims to localise not only the displays but also critical components, aligning with the government’s vision for domestic manufacturing.

With the market estimated at ₹800–1,000 crore today and projected to grow to ₹3,500–4,000 crore in the next five years, SJS expects rising consumer demand for larger and more advanced centre-stack and rear-seat displays to drive growth.

SJS Enterprises has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with BOE Varitronix to manufacture automotive displays in India, moving into a space where nearly all units are currently imported. The collaboration marks a strategic shift from the company’s traditional focus on aesthetic and decorative components such as instrument cluster dials.



Under the MoU, BOE will provide technology support to assemble displays in India and help localise key components such as cover glass and backlight units. Thapar added, “They recognise that SJS has a strong position in India, and they needed a partner, and we needed a technology partner. So, it’s a marriage of both the companies.”

SJS Enterprises, currently valued at about ₹4,559 crore, expects revenues from this new vertical to start flowing in FY27-FY28, as investments will be deployed over the next year.

These are edited excerpts of the interview.

Q: Let’s start with the MOU itself. How does it fit into the strategy for your company, and how does it fit into your vision and rationale behind signing this MOU?

A: So SJS is a leader in the aesthetic, decorative space. We supply virtually to all the two-wheeler, four-wheeler, and consumer appliance OEMs in India. We also have a very tenured marquee OEM customer base across the world. One of the areas that we were working on earlier, for many years, where we have held a leadership position, is dials for instrument clusters. Now, these dials are converting to a digital dial and the display that you have on the centre stack of the car. We bet that this is going to increase, not only in terms of usage among cars in India across all segments, but also in the size of this display.

Our original plan a year ago, which we communicated to the market, was to make the cover glass for this display. But then our ambition became stronger, because a lot of other OEMs or tier ones, who make this information and display systems, approached us to say, “Can you go beyond cover glass, and could you look at assembly?”

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Now, this being a new area for us, we wanted to have a technology partner with us, and BOE is among the top three or four companies worldwide, which is a leader in this. The scope of our MOU is that they will help us with technology to assemble this display in India and also localise some key components, like the cover glass and the backlight unit. That is the intention. They recognised that SJS has a strong position in India, and they needed a partner, and we needed a technology partner. So, it’s a marriage of both companies.

Q: Currently, we understand that the content per vehicle that you enjoy, especially when it comes to the four-wheeler, is anywhere in the range of three-and-a-half to five thousand. With this MOU signed, what is the opportunity size that you’re targeting, and what is the total TAM?

A: So today, if I talk about the Indian market, all the displays that come into India are imported. I think almost 99.5% of the displays are imported. There’s just one tier one doing some assembly work, but the content is all imported.

So we will be first off the block in terms of localisation, not just of the display, but of the components. It falls in line with the vision of the Prime Minister of the country, and we believe that we would be a very strong player here. The size of the market at the moment, I estimate, is about ₹800 to 1000 crore, which could grow to a ₹3,500-4,000 crore market in the next five years.

We see a lot of tailwinds of consumers buying cars because of displays. That’s a very important element in the buying decision of a customer, and today, the OEMs are loading more and more content. So, you have the centre stack, which is growing bigger and bigger. Instead of a single display screen, you could have dual screens, like in the Mahindra XUV700, or you could have Hyundai and Kia cars, which have large displays. Even new offerings from Tata also have larger and larger displays. That’s a trend that will continue, and over time, you will see a lot of rear-seat entertainment coming in that would also need displays. So, I think this is strategically a very important step for us to address this very large and promising market moving forward.

Q: And any number that you could help us quantify? What will be the content per vehicle with all of these new opportunities?

A: I imagine it could be anywhere between, depending again on the size of the screen. You could have a single TFT screen, or dual or triple screens. On average, I would imagine it would add about ₹5,000 to about ₹8,000 of content to the existing basket that we have, which you said is about ₹5,500 or ₹6,000 today, potentially for a four-wheeler. So we could aim at reaching about ₹13,000-14,000 over the next few years.

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Q: And what does that do to your financials? Considering this MOU that you have signed, does the revenue opportunity that you are targeting boost your prospects for the full year? What kind of margin growth and topline growth are you anticipating now for the full year?

A: This MoU will not impact the current fiscal year 2025-26 (FY26), because this investment would be deployed over the next year or so. Revenues from this should start coming in in 2026-27 (FY27) or 2027-28 (FY28). But the run rate for the current year is extremely robust. At the beginning of the year, we guided that we’ll outperform the market two times the industry rate of growth, and we are on track to do that.

Q: A couple of quick questions, because we are running out of time. How is the partnership with Hero MotoCorp going? We understand that you added them recently to your clientele. And secondly, you have quite a lot of exposure to the USA. You added quite a few market clients, like Ford and Chrysler, as well. What has been the impact of tariffs there?

A: First, on Hero, our relationship is progressing well. We acquired them as a customer. We value them. They are the largest two-wheeler manufacturer in the world. So that is good business for us. We’ve started supplying models to them, and I think we are ramping up. New models are being developed. That is progressing very well, and we hope to continue to grow our business with them, not just for the product that we’ve started now, but also to cross-sell a whole lot of products in the coming years.

As far as the US goes, our exposure at this moment directly to the US is just about 1.5% of our sales. Not too much. We are optimistic, as is the rest of the automotive industry, that there should be some breakthrough in terms of what we do with the US markets. But essentially, what’s important for us is the technology that we have. India is quite competitive, cost-competitive globally, especially in the printing business. So, we see the US continuing to remain a very important and strong market for us, and we have very large businesses there. I think that business will continue to grow.

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