The Sippels – Benno and Julius – came from Germany in 1931 to assist English manufacturers mechanize plated spoon and fork production by installing heavy-duty presses.  They had a flatware firm in London in partnership with the Celnik family, but when that broke up amicably in 1933 they opened their own works in Arundel Street in Sheffield.  By 1939, the Sippels had relocated to Cadman Street, where Sipelia Works was said to have the largest press plant for forks and spoons in the country.  It was claimed that the workforce had grown from about 75 in 1933 to 400 by 1939 (Sheffield Telegraph & Independent Trade Supplement, 28 December 1939).  The firm used the mark ‘SIPELIA’, with ‘DURA-CROMA’ on chromium plate and cutlery.  The Sippels became naturalised in 1946.  Benno Sippel, the company’s managing director, collapsed and died on 19 November 1946, when addressing a business meeting at Church School, Church Lane, in Maltby, where he was planning a new works.  He was 56 and left £8,676.  He attended Carver Street Methodist Chapel.  Julius Sippel, Bingham Park Crescent, died on 28 February 1950, leaving £6,769.  Another member of the family, Wilhelm Sippel, died at his home in Lismore Road on 15 December 1950, aged 55, and was buried at Abbey Lane.  He left £359.  By the end 1950s, Kenneth Lovell Collin (1911-1997) became managing director.  Born in Kingston, Surrey, he had married in 1939 Benno’s daughter, Margarete Ida Hedwig.  Collin ambitiously began expanding the company as Sipelia Group.  He acquired several old Sheffield companies for either their machinery or names.  These included:  Trustwell Bros Ltd, Osborne & Co (Sheffield) Ltd, Mosley (Rusnorstain Cutlery) Ltd, L. Harrison (Cutlers) Ltd, R. Booth Ltd, and Lee & Wigfull (Sheffield) Ltd.  Under Collin, Sippel’s became the biggest manufacturer of spoons and forks in Sheffield.  With a workforce of about 500, it was amongst the five largest cutlery firms in the city.  Sipelia tried to resist the import invasion and remain a high-volume maker, but it struggled to make a profit, and went out of business in 1972.  Kenneth L. Collin died on 10 October 1997.  A headstone for the Sippel and Collin families can be seen in Ecclesall churchyard.