Access packages outside of current package setup.py

I am trying to access packages outside of the current package using setup.py. My project structure looks like this.

Example1/
|-- submodule1/
|   |-- __init__.py
|      |-- main/
|          |-- __init__.py
|          |-- hello.py
|   |-- setup.py
|-- submodule2/
|   |-- __init__.py
|      |-- main/
|          |-- __init__.py
|          |-- world.py
|   |-- setup.py
|-- submodule3/
|   |-- __init__.py
|      |-- main/
|          |-- __init__.py
|          |-- sample.py
|   |-- setup.py
|-- utils/
|   |-- __init__.py
|   |-- util_code1.py
|   |-- util_code2.py

I am trying to include utils package dir in setup.py of submodules.

here is how my setup.py looks

setup(
  name='sample_package',
  description='my test wheel',
  #packages=find_packages(),  
  packages=['main', '../../utils']
  entry_points={
    'group_1': 'module1=Example1.main.hello:method1'
  }
 ],
  include_package_data=True,
)

When I run command inside any of submodule python setup.py bdist_wheel to create a wheel for any submodule I am getting the following error.

error: package directory '../../utils' does not exist

from Access packages outside of current package setup.py